Worst gun legislation? Tell me!

Laws such as in PRMA, PRNJ, PRIL... that require a license in order to own a gun.

2nd: A dumb MA law that says you can't shoot at a human shaped target at a range that has gun rentals. Though I have seen people breaking that law and the range officers didn't seem to care

pretty much all gun control laws in California.

Lautenberg ban. This is the first time in American history that anyone has ever been permanently deprived of basic constitutional rights as a result of committing a misdemeanor offense, which is what, IMO, makes it especially odious.

1968 Gun Control Act. Close second would be the 1934 NFA.

The primary conclusion of the researchers who wrote "Under The Gun", Wright/Rossi/Daly, U of Fla Press, 1985, was that no gun control law passed in the state of Florida had ever affected the rate of violent crime with firearms.

IOW, none of them do any good. Therefore, they're all bad and a waste of time and tax dollars.

Import ban on Russian/chinese arms. Screw US makers, I want quality soviet arms using mil-spec recievers and not half-arsed stamped versions. Only real reason I dislike Clinton, the AWb don't bother me too much as it is too hard to enforce anyways, my dad had a 2 hundred rnd AK drum he got in 1999 from a trade, sold it after ban expired no issue. Funny thing is it had '97 import mark on it

Import ban on Russian/chinese arms.

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Definitely one of the dumber ones! And highly un-capitalistic at that.
They have a top break .357 I want so bad.

The 'Assault Weapons Ban" is pretty dumb, too. Simply because it's arguably one of the most random pieces of legislation on the face of the planet.

Maybe not the worst, but mention should certainly be made of the Gun-Free School Zones Act, simply for how easy it is to accidentally violate. Carrying legally out of state without a map, dividers, marker, gps, and list of k-12 schools is a good way to become a felon when you wander across the invisible 1000ft line.

gonna have to go to the root with Preacherman >>

I nominate whoever was responsible for inserting the phrase "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State" into the Second Amendment!

It would have been much simpler to have this Amendment simply state "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

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The state of Illinois

NFA and all related laws. Would very much like to build my own F/A STEN, cut my H&R Pardner down to a 8" barrel, put a stock on my Hi-Point 45 pistol, and be able to own and use an M-203.

Runner up would be the Gun Free School Zones. I work across the street from a school. I'd love to be able to carry at work.

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson

To own a gun in Chicago you need TWO permission slips, state FOID and Chicago CHP. To get the CHP you have to take special classes which aren't allowed, by law, in the city of Chicago.

The FOID is bad enough but a SECOND card? Seriously?

The worst was the machine gun ban. For the first time in U.S. history, an entire class of firearms were banned. That's a blatant violation of the Second Amendment and no one is doing anything about it. If they can ban machine guns, then they can ban anything else. If they could not ban machine guns, then they could not ban anything else.

This, "I don't care if they take your firearms, as long as they don't take mine" attitude will be the death of the Second Amendment.

The ones where they tell me when and where I can/not carry, what I can own with what accessories, and the ones where they charge me large amounts of money to do things the constitution tells me I can do.

I really have a problem with "shall inform" laws. Unlike most other stupid gun control measures these manage to infringe on not only the second amendment but the fourth, and occasionally fifth. That said the NFA was pretty bad, but I feel like the GCA was many times worse.

Mass. gun control laws.

.....I'm a NY resident and traveled to this state this winter on business using a rental car. I tried to buy powder, caps and brass but was denied because you need to be a Mass resident AND have a state permit for these items.

This law is dumb because I am allowed to buy these items legally in any of the other 49 states.

Not the worst but the silliest!!!

Laws that state that you cannot CCW into a place of worship!!! :banghead:

You mean to say that people that go to church, temple etc are so immature that they have to be protected from themselves??? :banghead: That they have to give up their right of self defense in order to be allowed to exercise their right of freedom of religion?????

Now I must wash out my mouth and ask for forgiveness.

I agree with the aformentioned posts in this thread. They're pretty bad, but...

I think the Sullivan Act is probably the worst gun/weapons law ever enacted.

It was sponsored by Timothy Sullivan, a notoriously corrupt New York State Senator and a mobster. The obvious intent of the law was to make it easier to eliminate threats to his and his comrad's illegal operations.

The Sullivan Act continues to be the most prominent example of why politicians support gun bans for law abiding citizens.

I'm from the UK, so I'm going to vote for every piece of UK firearms legislation ever :banghead:

You probably all know about the major bans, but there was one piece of legislation that particularly affected me that you may not have heard about.

Here's a link explaining the basics:
http://www.saddleryandgunroom.co.uk/gunroom/sg_airguns_brocock.htm

Note that the penalty for owning one is now a minimum of 5 years, up to a maximum of 10 years.

For those not familiar with the design, these are air pistols that fire cartridges that are pumped up with compressed air and topped off with a pellet.

I had at least $1,500 tied up in a couple of these guns and associated equipment.
I had broken no laws, and I received no financial compensation when I handed them in to be destroyed.
The reason I received no compensation was that they offered owners of these air pistols the option to obtain a firearms certificate and keep their guns.
If you research what it takes to get a FAC in the UK, you'll see that this wasn't a viable option for the vast majority of people.

I had one of my Brockocks (a SAA that I had bought less than two months before this all happened)) 'deactivated' because I just couldn't bear to part with it. Deactivation involves various welding and cutting operations to make the gun inoperable.
The gun was still away being deactivated when the deadline for handing the guns in had passed.

When I went to pick it up from the gun shop, there was a guy there who was also a Brockock owner. He had been away on business and arrived back after the ban.
The first he knew about it was when he arrived back in the UK and the deadline had already passed.

He was talking to the guy in the gun shop and he seemed very alarmed, in fact he looked like he was going to cry.
I sidled closer and caught the tail end of the conversation, in which the gun shop guy was advising him to "buy a hacksaw, cut it up, and throw the pieces into a canal".

When the guy left, the guy in the gun shop told me that the guy had found out about the ban when he got home from abroad, called the police anonymously from a pay phone, and asked them if he could drop it off to be destroyed.
The police told him that since the deadline had passed, they would have to arrest him if he turned up at the station with the gun.

He'd gone to the gun shop in a panic, hoping they could destroy it for him, but they couldn't do so because the pistol was now an illegal firearm and couldn't be transferred to them legally.
The gun shop guy said that he was supposed to report the incident to the police, as offering to sell/give/lend etc an illegal firearm is also a firearms offense. (he didn't of course)

Remember, this gun was an air pistol.
Some people had modified them to fire .22 ammo, and journalists had got hold of the story.
I never converted mine, and had no intention of doing so. Manufacturing a handgun was already a crime.
They banned the guns and made people surrender them in case they decided to perform the criminal act of converting them.

Basically, guilty until proven innocent.




Happily, I now live in the States.
I just ordered an AK parts kit as a nice little project to work on.
Through the mail.

Merely owning the bolt of this AK in the UK would be classed as a firearms offense, and yes, that carries the minimum 5 year prison sentence.

I spent a few weeks in NJ last year, and OMG I'm so glad I didn't get that job. I don't know how LGS stay in business in that state. 6 months to get permission to buy a long gun. One LGS employee said a handgun purchase has taken up to three years. You can't buy hand gun ammo without a hand gun owner ID card, and that includes any ammo that can be, or ever has been, used in a hand gun, meaning, I could not buy .22LR or .410 shot shells... which I couldn't anyway because I was not a NJ resident. Absurd.

The NFA 34 was still the one that paved the way for all others.

Happily, I now live in the States.
I just ordered an AK parts kit as a nice little project to work on.
Through the mail.

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I love a story with a happy ending. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Just a suggestion, now that your over here, assuming your loocal laws allow it, have you considered buying a Branock and converting it to .22? Ya know, because you can now?

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson

I'm a New Yorker (Upstate), we have to many to list.

NY (and Maryland's) COBIS ballistic fingerprint law for handgun cases. In NY - $40 million spent over 10 years, 2 "hits," and no arrests let alone convictions.
"May issue" on handgun permits and the restrictions local judges put on the permits.

@Kayak-man:
I live in NY and don't have a pistol permit yet, but it might be something to pencil in for the future!
I don't think it would be anywhere as easy as the UK media made it out to be though.
The chambers could be sleeved and reamed for .22 easily enough, but the firing pins were set up for centerfire and mounted in the frame, so it would require at least a modicum of gunsmithing skill.
I believe the illegal conversions had recessed chambers and a plug that you drop in after the round with a firing pin protrusion. This plug would then be hit by the firing pin of the gun.
Sounds a bit crappy to me, I'd relocate the firing pin.
A lot of them were just crappy zinc castings, but there were a few nice ones.
My SAA was a Pietta that had been modified by the Brocock factory. Cost me a fortune, and I never even got to fire it

Illinois

FOID