In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Language in a Senate military funding bill will be removed before it becomes law
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
| | | Bill targets ex-military weaponsSENATE: Stevens says language will be removed before the bill's passage. The Associated Press (Published: November 7, 2001) Fairbanks -- Language in a Senate military funding bill that could force people to destroy their old military guns and equipment will be removed before it becomes law, Sen. Ted Stevens says.The Senate version of the Defense Department authorization act for the 2002 fiscal year contains language that gun owner groups say they have been fighting for years.But Stevens told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he understands an agreement has been reached to remove the language from the final bill.Mike Hawker, a board member of the Alaska Gun Collectors Association in Anchorage, said the bill would let the government repossess and destroy everything from basic hunting rifles to restored military aircraft.The House version doesn't contain the language. The final bill is to be crafted by a House-Senate conference committee.The Senate language states that all "significant military equipment" is unlawful to possess unless it has been "demilitarized."The federal government's list of such equipment includes "launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs and mines."But the first items defined as "significant" on the Department of State's U.S. Munitions List are military "nonautomatic, semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms."That definition, said Hawker, covers some rifles that people use to hunt, including the Model 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle in a .30-06 caliber, a standard World War I Army weapon.Under the Senate bill, such weapons could be legally possessed only if they were "demilitarized." Hawker said the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 defines demilitarization as rendering a gun useless.Hawker said the law wouldn't just apply to old firearms. Restored military aircraft and vehicles could also be covered, he said. http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/734771p-782683c.html