By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Several leading gun rights organizations have thrown their weight behind federal legislation that would replace the “sporting purposes” and “sporting use” standards set down in the 1968 Gun Control Act, and ostensibly rein in what the bill’s sponsor called “the over-reaching hand of the federal government.”
Congressman Rob Bishop’s H.R. 2710 is seen by a growing number of people as a slap at abuses and arbitrary regulation of arms and ammunition by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
In a statement introducing his bill, Rep. Bishop noted, “The founding fathers recognized that the right to bear arms is fundamentally tied to self-defense. This is as true today as it was over two centuries ago when the Bill of Rights was ratified.
“The ATF,” Bishop said, “has exploited vagaries present in federal gun law to chip away at basic rights. This legislation will slap the over-reaching hand of the federal government and restore some of the freedoms our grandparents enjoyed.”
Announcing his support for the measure, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, followed that reasoning.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb
“There is no ‘sporting purpose’ stipulation in the Second Amendment,” he said, “and there should not be one in federal law. The right to keep and bear arms is not just about hunting or target shooting. It is time for this restrictive language to be replaced.”
NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox was first to publicly support the measure, noting, “This important legislation would prevent arbitrary ammunition bans like the one attempted earlier this year by the Obama Administration.” He was referring to ATF’s attempt to ban M855 ammunition for the AR-15 and similar rifles earlier this year. Some believe this contributed to the departure of B. Todd Jones as ATF director.
“With the support of America’s law-abiding gun owners,” Cox recalled, “the NRA was able to beat back (President) Obama’s attempt to ban ammunition used by millions of law-abiding Americans every day for target shooting, hunting, and self-defense. This legislation would fix the law to protect us from similar government overreach in the future.”
Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel at NSSF, called Bishop’s bill “one of the most important pieces of reform legislation that the firearms and ammunition industry has seen come before Congress in recent years.” He urged Bishop’s colleagues on Capitol Hill to join as co-sponsors.
If passed into law, the measure will replace “sporting purpose” language in the law – which Second Amendment advocates have argued for more than 45 years should never have been there in the first place – with what NSSF called language that is “outdated and a hindrance to bringing lawful products to market.” The amendments will prevent arbitrary designations that some firearms and ammunition are “destructive devices.”
For decades, the “sporting purposes” and “sporting use” provisions in GCA ’68 have been a thorn in the side of firearms importers and dealers, not to mention Second Amendment advocates who, like Gottlieb, have maintained throughout that the terms are tantamount to bureaucratic Trojan horses. As the Supreme Court determined in District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller in June 2008, the right to keep and bear arms was never written to protect hunting or target shooting.
“The right to keep and bear arms may encompass hunting and competition,” Gottlieb said today, “but that’s not why the Founders included it in the Bill of Rights.”
