You have hopefully heard that our Congress actually did something worthy of their titles this week.
No, I don’t mean voting down their scheduled pay raise, I mean the passing of Senate Bill 397, also known as the ‘You can’t sue firearms manufacturers because some dirtbag used a firearm’ bill to the President for signature.
Joe Huffman has a good post on its passage, including an explanation of the gunlock provision and the handgun AP ammo portion that the GOA wants to squak about.
But this is my favorite part, found at the Geek W/a 45’s blog
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES.
(a) (2) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the rights of individuals, including those who are not members of a militia or engaged in military service or training, to keep and bear arms.
Now that is the recognition I’ve been looking for for a long time!
I saw that provision too. Nice to have them say that, but it doesn’t really mean much. There are no penalties associated with violation of that provision–it’s just a finding. They have had similar “findings” before so it isn’t really anything new. It doesn’t repeal any of the other Federal laws that infringe the 2nd Amendment–even if they are in conflict with this finding. And there is nothing that requires Federal prosecutors to go after states or cities that violate this finding. Federal prosecutors can simply say, “At the present time both our national and local priorities, when considered in conjunction with existing resources, do not permit the commencement of such action.”
I understand, Joe. Most of what Congress says doesn’t mean very much (especially to me), but I thought it a kind jesture to finally put that in writing.
Hopefully, the next time something 2A related comes up in the SCOTUS, this will be brought up.
THEN maybe we can get some actual, factual business done.