While Second Amendment advocates are keeping their fingers crossed in hopes that the Supreme Court will soon hear a challenge to Maryland’s ban on so-called assault weapons and declare that AR-15s and other semi-automatic firearms are indeed protected by the Second Amendment, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) has another idea to wipe state-level gun bans off the books.
On Wednesday, Tenney introduced the Second Amendment Guarantee Act (SAGA Act), which would prohibit states from enacting bans on the sale, manufacture, importation, and possession of any firearm not prohibited under federal law.
Tenney’s bill is largely a response to New York’s SAFE Act that was enacted in 2013, though if passed it would essentially strike down every “assault weapon” ban in the country.
Tenney has called the SAFE Act unconstitutional and wants to pass the SAGA Act to protect citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
“The SAGA Act nullifies New York’s unconstitutional SAFE Act and prevents other states from enacting laws that violate the Second Amendment,” Tenney said in a statement. “This legislation upholds our country’s founding principle of protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans, even from liberal states with anti-gun policies.”
Rep. Nick Langworthy, another New York Republican serving in Congress, was one of the first co-sponsors of the SAGA Act, declaring in a press release, “No matter how hard radical Democrats in Albany attempt to limit lawful gun ownership, the New York Congressional delegation will stand firm to protect law-abiding New Yorkers and manufacturers in protecting their constitutional rights.”
Given the slim GOP majorities in both the House and Senate, Tenney’s bill is going to face the same challenges as every other Second Amendment-related bill in Congress, where votes tend to fall along party lines. Still, it’s possible that the SAGA Act could be included in future reconciliation bills, which require just a simple majority in both the House and Senate, and if the Supreme Court decides not to grant cert to the Snope case out of Maryland in the weeks ahead, Tenney’s legislation should become a top priority for congressional Republicans.
The gun control lobby wants to make 2025 the Year of the Semi-Auto Ban. Anti-gun activists and groups like Everytown are pushing for sweeping prohibitions in states like Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, and Rhode Island while helping to defend the bans that are already in place in ten states and the District of Columbia.
Frankly, even if SCOTUS does decide to hear the Snope case, Tenney’s bill should still be a prime objective for the GOP on Capitol Hill this year. While I’d like to think that the same 6-3 majority that declared New York’s “may issue” carry laws unconstitutional would also declare Maryland’s “assault weapon” ban an infringement on our Second Amendment rights, there’s no guarantee that Roberts and Barrett will side with the plaintiffs challenging the prohibition.
At the very least, Tenney’s bill would be a valuable backstop in the short term. It would protect the right to own some of the most popular firearms in the country, at least until the day that Democrats have the numbers in Congress (and the White House) to enshrine a semi-auto ban into federal law. The SAGA Act doesn’t negate the need for the Supreme Court to declare these bans unconstitutional, but it’s still a good step in the right direction… and one that will hopefully find traction with a majority of Tenney’s fellow congresscritters.
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