H.R. 45 in Congress

Many of you have forwarded emails to me about the Draconian H.R. 45 that has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, that would make it a crime for anyone to possess a firearm in the U.S. unless they have a license to do so issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. A couple of points about this:

1) I can’t imagine that Montana’s lone Congressman, Denny Rehberg, would do anything other than vote against this. Denny is our friend, supports the RKBA, but is only one member of Congress.

2) The theory that this will inhibit criminal use of guns is absurd, for two reasons: It is the vocation of criminals to break the law, and the courts have held that criminals can not be required to register themselves as gun possessors or register their guns because that registration would violate their Fifth Amendment right to freedom from self-incrimination – that is, it is a crime for a criminal to possess a firearm and to submit to a licensing scheme would constitute an admission by the criminal that he had broken the law.

There’s not much we can do about this federal legislation at present. If it should get out of the U.S. House and into the U.S. Senate it will probably be good to remind Montana’s Senators Baucus and Tester that they have pledged to oppose all gun control legislation.

Stay tuned …

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com