By Chris Woodward
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, has introduced legislation he says will save lives and protect communities from gun violence while protecting Americans’ constitutional right to own a firearm.
Gun rights groups said the legislative proposal is clearly unconstitutional.
The GOSAFE Act would regulate the sale, transfer and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic firearms by establishing a list of prohibited firearms and prevent the unlawful modification of permissible firearms.
Moreover, Kelly wants to mandate that future gas-operated designs are approved before they are manufactured. Unlawful firearm self-assembly and manufacturing would be prevented under his bill. Machinegun conversion devices would be prohibited.
High-capacity ammunition devices would also be limited under the GOSAFE Act.
Referring to himself as a gun owner, combat veteran and husband of a gun violence survivor, Kelly said that he has first-hand knowledge about the damage weapons such as these cause when in the wrong hands. Kelly’s wife is former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011.
“We can protect the rights of responsible gun owners and take action to keep the most lethal firearms out of the hands of dangerous people,” Kelly said. “We’ve seen the consequences of inaction. Let’s not wait for the next tragedy to do something about it.”
U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico; Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, are cosponsoring the legislation. Bennett, who announced Friday he’s running for governor of Colorado, said the Centennial State is no stranger to gun violence, adding that his state has experienced one incident after another for more than two decades.
“This common-sense gun safety bill will keep weapons of war out of the hands of the wrong people while respecting responsible gun owners,” Bennet said. “With this legislation, we are taking an important step to combat gun violence in our communities and protect children across the country.”
Endorsements for the GOSAFE Act include Mark Collins of March for Our Lives; Mark Barden, cofounder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, and John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Center Square reached out to Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association for comment but did not hear back by press time.
Mark Oliva, managing director of Public Affairs at National Shooting Sports Foundation, told The Center Square the GOSAFE Act is “blatantly unconstitutional” and that the NSSF rejects the measure.
“This legislation is an affront to the Second Amendment and the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in the 2008 Heller decision,” Oliva said. “That decision, of course, held that government cannot ban entire classes of firearms that are commonly owned and commonly used.”
There are over 30 million modern sporting rifles in America today, according to Oliva. Those are the most popular-selling centerfire rifle in the nation, which Oliva said are “used for lawful purposes daily,” including recreational target shooting, hunting and self-defense.
“To put that into perspective, there are more of these rifles in circulation than there are Ford F-150s on the road, the most popular-selling pickup truck in America,” said Oliva. “This legislation is the inspiration for the unconstitutional law that was just signed by Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado, and that bill was amended to ban the sale of these common firearms without a permission slip from the government.”
NSSF also rejects that “unconstitutional intrusion on Second Amendment rights,” saying it runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s holdings in the 2022 Bruen decision.
“Sens. Kelly, Heinrich, King and others who attack the rights of law-abiding citizens would rather punish those who obey the law instead of holding criminals responsible for their crimes,” said Oliva, who’s a veteran. “Instead of crafting lists of banned rights, these senators should empower law enforcement to protect our communities, hold prosecutors, district attorneys and attorneys general responsible for soft-on-crime policies and mandate that judges lock up criminals instead of turning them back into our communities to prey on our innocent neighbors.”
It’s funny how anti gun he’s become since being caught buying an AR15 at a local gun shop in Tucson a couple years after his wife was shot. He literally returned it after it became news. I’ve always been curious why the media has never dug into his extra curricular activities with young women.
You don’t have to ask why no one ever bothered to investigate his flings. He has the magic (D) after his name and we all know that they are still held harmless from all negative reoporting.
Here we go again. The gun should be restricted because it’s violent…do vehicles become violent when death occurs due to auto accidents? Do knives become violent when someone uses the knife to murder? And of course we all know criminals are going to voluntarily turn in their illegal guns! Sarcasm folks. It’s a way I cope with the incompetent **shat Kelly.
Apparently Uncle Fester is seeking more attention after Bezos launched an all female space crew.
BTW, I thought that was what Worldview was for to take idiots like those 6 women to near outer space? Wonder how much Kelly bilked Pima County taxpayers for under the supervision of Chuck Huckelberry and his no bid contracts.
If you write to Senator Kelly about any subject, his reply will invariably start by reminding you yet another time that he was an astronaut —as if that has anything whatsoever to do with the subject of your letter. Which it never does. I can’t even hear his name without being reminded of the Big Bang Theory episode where Howard Wolowicz won’t stop telling his friends ad nauseum that he went to space.
I grew up in California before it turned into the shite hole it is today. If the patriotic voters of Arizona do not want to end up like California or Colorado DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT like Kelly and his friends who defy the constitution that they took an oath to follow and defend.
The filthy astronaut is going after a rifle that was created in 1956. Somehow, in almost 70 years of existence, it’s evolved from a docile sporting rifle into a “weapon of war” so now we need “common-sense” gun legislation. I don’t think so.
and husband of a gun violence survivor, Gabby was attacked by a ‘violet gun owner’ with known mental illness issues that were ignored by the system. That’s who attacked and shot GG. The system chose to look the other way when the attacker acted out prior to his actions. Existing gun laws were not in play. This attacker was known long before the attack and ignored all symptoms – no one would do anything about his ‘displayed symptoms’ – the attack occurred from lack of actions of authorities. MILLIONS OF GUN OWNERS and GUNS – do absolutely nothing. Want to save some lives – Stop drug importation at the border!
Yup,Jared Loughner had had issues at PCC and scared a lot of people on campus. Nothing was done…..PCC knew about him as well as the PCSD. Why was nothing done you ask, his mother worked for probably the worst sheriff in the country Clarence Dupnik who spent most of his time on his boat in SD. PCSD did nothing and was well aware of Loughner. His mother even gave him a CC so he could buy the gun. The guy is mentally ill and his parents enable him to purchase the gun. What a great family!!
AMEN ! Why was she never charged knowing this?
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
Did you really mean what you said when you took your oath of office ‘Senator’ Kelly? Or did you just utter this oath as a means to an end, the end being disarming the American people in the way that Hitler, Stalin and Mao disarmed their citizens?
Of course anti-American Kelly wants to take away our 2nd Amendment rights. Clearly his much vaunted time in the military taught him nothing about firearms since he seems to believe the guns are the problem, not the crazy people who use them to hurt other people.
“We can protect the rights of responsible gun owners and take action to keep the most lethal firearms out of the hands of dangerous people,” “Kelly said.”
And the picture in the article is of him standing in front of a tank!! Can’t make this s__t up!
This is to protect the rights of the Democrat elites because they don’t want the firearms to fall of into the hands of the dangerous concervative constituents who will derail their agenda and policies. That’s why they’re terrified right now!
Scott – Kelly’s plan is to arm them till… ? … then disarm them for your own good.. now that’s S–t that’s hard to make up.