Rae Oliver Davis: “I am a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and a life-long shooting sports enthusiast. I have been an…”

“I am a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and a life-long shooting sports enthusiast. I have been an outspoken supporter of second amendment rights and strongly support the original intent of this bill. I regret the legislation we are voting on today contains the Kohl- Reed storage device amendment. We need to protect the firearms industry, an industry I would like to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is responsible for arming our troops, our law enforcement professionals, including the Capitol Police. But responsible gun owners should not have further limits placed on their second amendment rights. Unfortunately, it has become necessary to enact legislation to protect responsible owners, manufacturers, and sellers from frivolous liability lawsuits and criminals and others who irresponsibly handle firearms. The original legislation from the House had 257 cosponsors and the original bill in the Senate, which did not contain the Kohl-Reed amendment, had 62 cosponsors. I do not understand why then we are about to pass a measure that is a compromise of the two bills that were overwhelmingly supported by both Chambers. Among the provisions of this amendment is a requirement of using devices like a trigger lock to protect an individual from a release of liability if a criminal should take their weapon. For example, trigger locks can violate a fundamental safety rule of keeping everything out of the trigger guard until ready to shoot.…”