First House Republican backs bill banning assault weapons

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Rep. Pete King (N.Y.) is the first House Republican to back a bill in the chamber seeking to ban assault weapons.

"They are weapons of mass slaughter," King told the New York Daily News on Monday shortly after his support for the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019 as a co-sponsor became public on Congress's website.

“I don’t see any need for them in everyday society,” he added.

The bill, rolled out in February by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), has 200 Democratic co-sponsors.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/457993-new-york-republican-backs-assault-weapons-ban

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Pete King has been around forever and is as moderate a Republican as you're going to find...

these days. His district is quite diverse, and has very little wingnut NRA support. This gives him a fair amount of freedom to buck the party.

Maybe this will spur a few of his cohorts to grow a pair.

[HockeyMom]

5. He voted against Clinton's impeachment

My daughter and SIL live in his district and always vote against him. Broken clock right once sums him up.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. His district is the next one over from mine, so he's on local news a lot...

I'd vote against him, too, but even when I think he's wrong (a lot of the time) he's not a jerk about it.

[procon]

2. Good on him.

Might he be the harbinger of a new era? Wishful thinking...

[bucolic_frolic]

3. OMFG THERE'S AN ELECTION NEXT YEAR I'D BETTER DO SOMETHING

Pete King knows the writings on the wall

[NickB79]

4. Details?

Would there be a multi-billion-dollar buyback, or would existing ones just be grandfathered in like last time?

[Turbineguy]

6. He's what republicans would call

a traitor.

[solara]

7. Wow.. This is kind of amazing

Why don't the Republicans set up a system state by state to buy back assault weapons and give each person who brings one in, a rifle. A regular old rifle as a bonus so they won't think they are being "Un-armed".

[madville]

9. Went and read the bill, oh boy

So under this "ban" everyone gets to keep what they have, can buy or sell existing weapons, and buy new ones that function the same minus a few cosmetic features.

Everyone gets to keep their high capacity magazines as well (which there are 100s of millions of in the US).

Trying to figure out what this actually bans?

[NickB79]

10. That's literally what the 1994 AWB specified

And mostly what the California and New York AWB's currently specify (though I don't believe you can sell pre-ban grandfathered guns). Millions of AR's were sold in the 90's during the ban, just without flash hiders, bayonet lugs or 30-rd magazines.

And if the two most liberal states in the US can't do any better, what makes you think we could get the entire nation to do so?