GOSAFE is a No Go

Usually, the gun grabbing left tries to ban semi-automatic firearms based on cosmetic details such as pistol grips, collapsible stocks, and muzzle devices – and don’t forget the left’s favorite - a detachable magazine.

Now, they are going after semi-automatics based on their self-loading mechanisms.

According to the NRA, these are the six self-loading mechanisms for semi-automatic firearms: Recoil, Gas; Short Stroke Piston; Long Stroke Piston; Muzzle Gas Trap; and Blowback/Inertia Operations.

Senators Mark Kelly, (D-Arizona), Michael Bennet, (D-Colorado), Angus King (I-Maine) and Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), cosponsored the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act which targets a firearm’s gas operating system, which is an extremely common system used in rifles like the AR-15.  The bill defines “gas-operated” as also including blowback-operated and recoil-operated systems as well.

GOSAFE is broader and more restrictive than other types of “assault weapons” bans because it would prohibit rifles like the Ruger Mini-14, a semi-automatic rifle that does not usually get caught up in gun bans.

GOSAFE also includes the usual ban on magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition along with any magazine that can be “readily restored, altered, or converted to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition.”

GOSAFE also includes a provision that would ban any device that, when attached to a semi-automatic firearm, “materially increases the rate of fire.” This would ban bump stocks and ban premium triggers, aftermarket recoil springs, and other common upgrades that could potentially increase the rate of fire.

Current owners of banned firearms will be allowed to keep them, though those firearms can only be transferred to immediate family members after the bill goes into effect.

Exemptions include: .22 caliber rimfire or less firearms; semi-automatic shotguns; any rifle with a permanently fixed magazine of 10 rounds or less; any handgun with a permanently fixed magazine of 15 rounds or less; recoil-operated handguns.

GOSAFE would charge anyone who possesses a banned rifle or magazine with a misdemeanor and hit them with a fine of up to $5,000 and/or a 12-month prison sentence.

GOSAFE has also been endorsed by the usual suspects: Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady; United Against Gun Violence; Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund; and March for our Lives.  They use the usual misleading characterizations such as “weapons of war.”  With these groups endorsing it, you know it is unconstitutional.

Mark Oliva, managing director of Public Affairs at National Shooting Sports Foundation said, “This legislation is an affront to the Second Amendment and the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in the 2008 Heller decision…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. (That should qualify as commonly owned and used.)

According to a 2022 survey of hunters by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 36% used AR-type rifles (what the NSSF calls “modern sporting rifles”) for varmint hunting, 21% used them for hunting small game, and 21% used them for hunting big game.

Another survey by Winchester Ammunition found that 40% of hunters used an AR-platform rifle for hunting in 2021.

Oliva summed it up well when he also said, “Senators 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…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.”

And speaking of prosecutors, district attorneys and attorneys general…

The gun-grabbers at the Bloomberg-funded Everytown For Gun Safety have announced that they plan to spend millions of dollars to elect state attorney generals who they say will “stand up for the law.” (As they wish the law was written.)  Another of Bloomberg’s bottomless millions going to finance efforts to curtail private gun ownership and kill the Second Amendment.

With a goal of spending $10 million, the group will support the work to elect Democrat AGs in up to 10 key swing states across the 2025 and 2026 election cycles. This will likely include races in Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, Wisconsin and Virginia.