Did Feinstein Just Sabotage The New Gun Bill?

I don’t know whether to condemn Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) or praise her. She has filed a bill as an amendment to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that would raise the age to purchase many semi-auto rifles, pistols, or shotguns to 21. The impact of this amendment could cause the carefully crafted “compromise” (sic) to fall apart.

AP Photo, March 1998. kolotv.com

From her press release:

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today filed the Age 21 Act as an amendment to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the gun violence prevention bill pending before the Senate. The amendment would raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines from 18 to 21.

Senator Feinstein reintroduced the Age 21 Act on May 19, five days after the massacre at a Buffalo supermarket and five days before the school shooting in Uvalde, each of which involved an 18-year-old who legally purchased an assault rifle.

 “The Senate gun safety bill is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t address the major problem of teenagers owning weapons of war,” said Senator Feinstein. “It makes no sense that it’s illegal for someone under 21 to buy a handgun or even a beer, yet can legally buy an assault weapon.  My amendment is a commonsense fix with broad public support that should receive bipartisan backing and I hope that it’s allowed a vote.”

Reading through the amendment which I have embedded below, something as innocuous as a semi-auto shotgun such as the Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl Snow Goose edition would be forbidden to anyone under 21. The reasoning, according to the amendment, is that it has a tubular magazine that holds more than 5 rounds. Likewise, a turkey shotgun that had a pistol grip would be forbidden. On pistols, if you wanted to have a threaded barrel for a suppressor to protect your hearing, sorry but young ears need to be damaged is the message this amendment sends.

I really think these sorts of amendments could cause the whole thing to fall apart and force the Republicans to walk away. It is one thing to say you want to do careful background checks taking into account juvenile records for those under 21 and a whole another thing to ban a whole category of firearms to them. I don’t think a Manchin or Sinema could get by with voting for such a bill that included that along with the other stuff.

I do notice that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is not one of the co-sponsors of her original bill nor is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Here is the text of Feinstein’s Age 21 Act amendment.

Feinstein-Age-21-Act


11 thoughts on “Did Feinstein Just Sabotage The New Gun Bill?”

  1. My guess is killing the bill is her intention.

    The primary reason the Republicans agreed to this is to remove gun control as an issue going into November. McConnel is still stuck in the establishment Republican mode of political maneuvering “If we surrender quickly, they won’t be able to beat us about the head and shoulders with this issue”. They don’t call it the stupid party for nothing.

    If Pelosi can kill the bill by introducing a poison pill the Republicans will never accept, the Dems can then cry “the Republicans are killing our children” in November. I believe both dinosaurs are overestimating the impact such an argument would have. In fact, the Republicans are underestimating how pissed off many of their base are over this.

    My biggest fear is that because the Republicans know that this is why she’s doing it, they’ll capitulate and accept whatever crap the Democrats tack on in an effort to neuter the issue before the elections. I repeat…they’re not known as the stupid party for nothing.

    By the way. Can someone explain to me why a 6 year old is old enough to declare themselves transgender, a 14 year old is old enough to get an abortion without parental consent, a 16 year old is old enough to vote, but a legally adult 18 year old isn’t old enough to own the proper tools for self defense?

    This crap started with the drinking age. An adult is an adult. If human beings aren’t mature enough to make adult decisions until age 21, then make the age of majority 21 for everything. This selective age determination based on what is advantageous to the political flavor of the day is ridiculous and, in my opinion, unconstitutional (equal protection under the law/age discrimination). Making the age of majority 21 won’t happen, by the way, primarily because the military needs its constant stream of 18 year old recruits…if the age were raised to 21, I’d bet initial enlistments would slow to a trickle.

    1. Excellent points all around. I passionate support raising the she of adulthood for EVERYTHING to 21.

      BTW, that would not affect military service. The legal age of adulthood was lowered to 18 the same year I turned 21. I was already a member of the US Army reserve. My dad enlisted in the Navy in WW2 when he was 17 years, 6 months. And yes, the Navy knew that. It was legal.

      1. Sorry for the delay in replying, I’m on travel.

        I enlisted in the Navy at 17, but I had to have my parents sign the paperwork to give permission. Maybe it was different in WWII, but I can’t find any evidence of that.

        At 17, although permitted to enlist, I needed parental permission because I was still a minor. At 18 I would have been a legal adult and did not need permission.

    2. Making the age of majority 21 won’t happen
      It also won’t happen because there’s an actual Constitutional amendment making the voting age 18.

    3. I agree totally . In my youth I knew a WW2 USMC vet of literally 5 years of combat whom survived about any imagined deprivation and was wounded in the process. He wound up building nuclear plants for decades after his schooling post war and working in oak ridge TN. Anyhow it was his firm belief a human mind was not fully developed until 25 years of age. He rode his son hard on that and made a good son in the process.
      We can somehow draft an 18 year old and send them to war with hardly any training or construct for their minds to deal with properly. They cant buy a beer , they cant buy any smokes , they cant buy a pistol. But we can send them off to kill or be killed for uncle sugar and his politicians. So if we are going to further restrict our youth let make 21 the age for VOTING , GUNS , ALCOHOL , POLITICAL OFFICE , TOBACCO , LEGAL MARIJUANA. The leftwaffe will have a cow with half of this…it’s all or nothing !!!.

  2. It makes no sense that it’s illegal for someone under 21 to buy a handgun or even a beer, yet can legally buy an assault weapon.
    I totally agree. That’s why I think age limits above 18 should be abolished on ALL items.
    (If the Constitution says you’re a full citizen, enjoying the right to vote, at 18, then it should be extended to all other Constitutional rights and and actions not governed by the Constitution.)

  3. Throw in that it’s been illegal for under 21 to buy a handgun for a Loooooong time; why throw in something so redundant?

  4. Amendments like these and when allowed to be called receive up or down votes. The amendment would likely fail still allowing the bill to proceed.

    No post about Bruen?

  5. I don’t care about the “why” of it.

    “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
    ― Napoleon Bonaparte

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