Not Excited About Republicans In Charge

Kilted to Kick Cancer!

Why am I not excited about the chance the Republicans getting a clean sweep?

Because I am a gun owner and the most lasting effects on my ownership have been from Republican presidents.

In 1986 Ronald Reagan signed the "Firearms Owners Protection Act".  That capped the supply of machineguns that could be owned by us everyday citizens to what was already built on the day the law took affect, May 19, 1986.  He should have both said, this is not what was promised and vetoed it.

That means an M16 I could own is at least 26 years old and is in the neighborhood of $17,000.  Plus $200 for the tax stamp.

A new M16 certainly doesn't cost that much.  If it was allowed I could build one for about $1,500 plus the stamp.  I can make a semi-automatic AR for about $1,500 plus the stamp.

The lower is the same except for two places.  On an M16 lower the milling operation that opens up the cavity for the hammer and trigger is continued all the way to the rear instead of the narrower channel for the disconnect and selector.  An M16 lower also has a hole drilled for the auto-sear.  A few minutes difference in machine time at most starting with a raw forging.

It is even sillier when you consider the Drop In Auto Sear or DIAS.  A REGISTERED DIAS is a $9,000 to $10,000 item.  It can be made without complex milling from stock you can buy at Home Depot in a couple of hours.  The thing is $25 of material, tops.  What it does is replace milling out the cavity and drilling the hole for the auto-sear.  All of the other trigger parts need to be proper M16.

But we can't make new ones because of an amendment to a bill that was added under questionable circumstances.

One would think that this would be easily remedied, wouldn't you?

Repeal of Hughes amendment portion of the FOPA has not been submitted even once since it became law.

Saint Reagan also supported the Brady Bill and endorsed its passage.

George HW Bush, by executive fiat, banned the importation of complete "assault rifles" under the sporting purposes clause of the gun control act.  He also signed the bill containing Joe Biden's 922(r) making it far more difficult to assemble a clone of a military style gun from parts kits.  This law was passed in 1990!  Most people paid no attention to it until after the 1994 Assault Weapon [sic] Ban (AWB).  Makes you wonder how many contraband FALs are out there, doesn't it?  In fact, until 1994 assault weapon style guns were a very small portion of the market.  Since the expiration of the AWB in 2004 they've become the principle portion of the rifle market.

The Republican take over of Congress in 1994 was bought primarily on the promise of repealing both the Brady Act and AWB.  No attempt at repeal was made in the following six years of Republican congressional majority.  That broken promise contributed to that majority steadily declining to a Democratic majority in the Senate in 2002 and full control of Congress in 2008.

George W Bush, by executive fiat, banned the importation of parts kits that had barrels.  He also said, more than once, that if the AWB renewal had hit his desk he would sign it.

I notice that the same Democrat names come up over and over when we're talking about gun control.  I notice that there are damn few stand out names on the other side of the aisle who oppose them.

The Republicans are not friends of gun owners, they are merely not our enemies most of the time.  Because they are not our friends we must pay close attention to them to make sure they don't opportunistically screw us over.