More than 100 House Democrats have reportedly signed a letter from Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) to President Joe Biden urging him to expand the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) to include the gun used in the Boulder, Colorado shooting.
The Democrats told Biden in the letter (obtained by Punchbowl) that the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, which is chaired by Thompson, “calls on you to take strong executive action to address serious inequities in the implementation of the National Firearms Act which is the federal law regulating the manufacture, transfer, and possession of certain classes of firearms.”
The letter pointed to a pistol (therefore smaller) version of the AR-15 known as the AR-556, the weapon that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa allegedly used to fatally shoot 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder last week. The shooting occurred in Neguse’ district.
“For too long, gun manufacturers in order to circumvent the National Firearms Act have designed and marketed concealable AR-15 style firearms which fire rifle rounds,” the Democrats wrote. “Concealable assault-style firearms that fire rifle rounds pose an unreasonable threat to our communities and should be fully regulated under the National Firearms Act consistent with the intent and history of the law,” the Democrats wrote.
Punchbowl notes that guns covered by the NFA have stricter requirements for purchase, such as $200 fees, fingerprints, and photos of the customer, that can take much longer to complete that a simple background check for firearms that aren’t included in the law. Additionally, the customer must register the NFA gun with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The White House did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
Congressional Dems have been making a renewed push to tighten gun ownership restrictions in wake of the shooting not just in Boulder, but also in the Atlanta, Georgia area the week before that killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
I’m not so sure this is a great start for D’s. Instead of going right for certain hardware, I think we should hit the easiest and most widely accepted problems first: gun show and used gun sale loop holes and close mental health gaps. It’s absurd that mental health screening isn’t part of the approval process. This would be a much easier sell than starting with banning certain types of guns IMO. Pound the message that most of these mass shootings are mentally disturbed people. The problem is the shooters, not the guns and cut off most of the GQP’s protest arguments immediately.
This is weird but the entire premise of this article doesn’t seem to stand up. The Ruger AR-556 looks like a budget version of the AR-15. No way is it a pistol in any sense. If they mean you can disassemble these things enough to fit the parts in a backpack that might be the point.
ETA the letter asks that Biden ban the importation of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. Nothing about the AR-556, pistols, or concealability is mentioned.
This is the AR-556 Pistol. It is a specific model separate from the AR-556 (Which is already a lightweight carbine).
This is a pistol firing 5.56mm NATO ammunition, which is a rifle round. The weapon also comes from the manufacturer with a flash suppressor. Ruger will tell you that’s for hunting—so you don’t startle the prey—but this is a pistol.
A pistol with a carbine-length bolt, flash suppressor, and a 30-rnd standard magazine loading the same ammunition as an M4 carbine.
This is a weapon of murder.
Edit: @mattinpa - the AR-556 Pistol’s hidden on Ruger’s site in the pistols drop-down menu. Just popping it into a Google search won’t find it, because the carbine’s got better SEO… I suspect, on purpose.
Second Edit: Also, it’s got an SBA3 ‘pistol brace’. Do not be fooled. This is a 5-position telescoping stock for all carbine-length receivers. Pull it out, you’re a full-length carbine, waiting for the fire selection switch and firing pin to be replaced.
Good question. One view is yours. Another is that public support for (ostensible) “strong measures” is highest in the immediate aftermath of these massacres.
It is. Anything with less than a 16" barrel is a short-barrel rifle and subject to the 1934 restrictions.
Unless… You take the stock off the weapon, thus it can’t be shoulder-fired, then it’s a pistol.
And you add in a thing called a “pistol brace”, which looks very much like a stock, but it’s actually a brace invented by an Iraq amputee vet who wanted to be able to shoot his AR one-handed.