National Rifle Association President David Keene fired back at the proposed assault weapons ban sponsored by Sen. Diane Feinstein on Wednesday, saying the California lawmaker appeared to single out weapons based simply on whether they looked a certain way.
“Dianne Feinstein would ban 157 different firearms that she thinks look like military weapons, solely based on cosmetics,” Keene told an audience at Harvard University, according to
Politico.
“They can’t ban them on function, because they function the same way as my shotgun when I go duck hunting. So what they’ve done — literally — and her staff did this, they went through and looked at pictures, and said ‘This one should be banned, that one shouldn’t.’ So the same gun, with a pistol grip, it would be illegal,” said Keene. “Without a pistol grip, it won’t be. The question is: What does that do?”
Brian Weiss, a spokesperson for Feinstein objected to Keene’s characterization, telling Politico that the measure excludes more than 2,000 weapons intended for hunting.
“Senator Feinstein and her staff consulted with law enforcement agencies and policy experts for months to create a comprehensive list of weapons designed for hunting or sporting purposes that would not be covered by the ban,” said, Weiss. “The list of firearms banned by name was compiled in a similar manner, with the addition of carefully reviewing named assault weapons in various state assault weapons laws, and is made up of assault weapons commonly used to commit violence that met the military-characteristic test.”
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