With Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, the gun control lobby knows it won’t be able to enact any of its major agenda items. That’s not stopping anti-gun Democrats from introducing bills banning so-called assault weapons or imposing “universal” background checks, but we’re also seeing more subtle gun control bills that may even appear to be gun-neutral on their face.
Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana, has introduced a new piece of legislation that sound innocuous at first glance. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the bill is ultimately just a backhanded attack on gun ownership and the firearms industry.
The Gun Safety Incentive Act would create a 10% federal tax credit for certified firearm sales and storage devices through 2030, and promote safe gun storage through community-based, industry-wide, and federal efforts.
… The Gun Safety Incentive Act would direct the U.S. Department of Justice to promote best practice for safe firearm storage, require certain firearms to come with a “Safe Storage Saves Lives” label on their packaging, and create a grant program to fund community-based strategies to encourage safe storage.
While this bill isn’t the worst piece of legislation introduced by anti-gun Democrats in recent years, it’s still an opportunity to use the federal government to promote gun control. What “best practice” are they wanting to push? While Carson didn’t mention any specifics, we know that across the country gun control activists are demanding a one-size-fits-all policy of keeping every firearm locked up with ammunition stored separately, rendering them useless for self-defense.
I’m all in favor of storing firearms in a way that they can’t be accessed by toddlers or unauthorized users, but how that’s done is going to differ depending on the gun owner’s living situation. What’s appropriate for someone with young children in the home may be very different than an adult who lives by themselves. And while Carson’s bill doesn’t mandate any specific storage practice, it could easily be used as a stepping stone towards a federal gun control law that would punish gun owners who don’t keep their collection unloaded and under lock and key at all times.
Beyond that, Carson’s bill would also mandate warning labels on “specified handgun, rifle, and shotgun manufacturers”, who would have to “provide a clear and conspicuous notice on packaging that says, ‘Safe Storage Saves Lives'”, along with the address of the DOJ’s website detailing those storage practices. That seems designed to portray gun ownership itself in a negative light, and is similar to laws in states like California and New York that require gun stores to post signage that warn customers of the dangers of purchasing and possessing a firearm.
The only positive of Carson’s legislation is the 10% federal tax credit on some safes and storage devices, but that language could be introduced by Republicans in a clean bill that doesn’t come with any poison pills attached. Carson and his anti-gun colleagues have gotten pretty creative with their latest initiative, but Second Amendment advocates and Republicans in Congress shouldn’t buy in to what they’re selling.
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