Steven Schiff: “I rise to correct five misstatements about this bill and the weapons it contains that have already been made on the…”

“I rise to correct five misstatements about this bill and the weapons it contains that have already been made on the House floor this morning. First, these are not assault weapons. True assault weapons are true military weapons. That means pull the trigger once, or they have the capacity to set and pull the trigger once, and it continuously fires. Such weapons are already banned. These are semiautomatic weapons. That means pull the trigger once, it fires once. Second, these are not battlefield or combat weapons. None of these weapons are issued by any standing army on Earth. Third, the claim is that this bill bans 19 and only 19 weapons. That is not correct. This bill bans a specific list of 19 weapons plus any other firearm that meets certain other criteria. Such criteria can be that it has the capacity for holding a bayonet. When was the last time criminals launched a bayonet charge at anybody? Fourth, these weapons are not more effective at killing than any other kind of weapon. Obviously whether a weapon has a bayonet mount or not has nothing to do with how it fires. The proof could have been arranged by the proponents of this bill, and it was not. They could have staged a range test. They could have publicly demonstrated in a comparison between what they call assault weapons and other weapons how the assault weapon is able to fire better, faster, more accurately. They have not done it, because they cannot do it.”