Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Pro-Second Amendment groups fighting gun control efforts in Virginia have seized on a video showing the author of a sweeping ban fumbling over defining the “assault weapons" he wants to outlaw.
In the video, Democratic Virginia Del. Mark Levine said the biggest difference between hunting rifles and “assault weapons” is “how you hold the gun.”
Speaking at a public meeting, the author of legislation to ban AR-style guns and large, bullet-holding magazines used in semi-automatic weapons also said shooters could use several fingers to pull the trigger and that deer know the sound of a bullet shot through a “silencer” better than humans.
As audience members were heard chuckling in the background, Levine said: “In terms of the differences of the guns, the heart of the difference is how you hold the gun. It makes it a semi-automatic.” He showed his trigger finger moving, and added, “Meaning you can shoot with each finger, not like a bolt-action” rifle typically used in hunting.
“Basically, the difference between guns that go like this,” he said, extending one arm long, presumably to show holding a long barrel. “These are rifles, you use them to shoot an animal, and you can shoot very precisely.”
Asked to define guns he would ban at a meeting last week, he said, “Mass shooters don’t like things that go like this,” posing as if holding a bolt-action rifle.
Explaining why, he said: “What that means is, that somebody could hit the rifle butt against their head. Deer don’t do this, elk don’t do this, but humans, trying to save their lives, do this.”
Then, waving his arm Rambo-style in a sweeping fashion, he said: “Mass shooters use guns that go like this. ... Guns that go like this are wildly inaccurate.”
His comments have been mocked by gun users, especially after the National Rifle Association posted the video.
Now it is being used by pro-gun forces in Virginia and the nation to stall anti-gun legislation.
“He knows nothing about what he’s trying to ban,” said Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America. “Obviously, he’s watched too many movies,” he said, noting that semi-automatic rifles and bolt-action rifles are held the same way.
Phil Van Cleave, who heads the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said, “It’s clear that he’s way out of league, and he’s the one trying to make law.”
Levine did not respond to a request for comment.
Both VCDL and GOA organized this month’s massive pro-gun rally at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond.
While the new Democratic majority has pushed through several gun control measures, efforts to OK a ban on semi-automatic rifles have not moved forward.
Pratt and Van Cleave said they planned to distribute the video of Levine widely to help make their point that the ban is wrongheaded and authored by a lawmaker who is unfamiliar with the weapons.
“It definitely showed ignorance, and he out-and-out lied about the facts,” Pratt said.
AR-style rifles are popular and used for sport shooting and hunting.
Virginia has become ground zero in the gun-ban fight. Several new lawmakers were funded by groups sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. The controversy has also divided rural and urban areas, prompting the governor of West Virginia to invite disgruntled Virginia counties to join his state.
Levine said that in addition to semi-automatic weapons, he wanted to ban suppressors and large magazines.
In his address, according to Van Cleave and Pratt, he misstated how those work.
Levine, who had previously said that assault weapons are inaccurate, said that guns with magazines could be precise killers. “So if you have 30 bullets in your magazine, you can shoot 30 people just as fast as I can move my finger and kill them all,” he said.
And he said that suppressors, encouraged for use by hunters in Europe, are dangerous.
“A deer is going to run away no matter what, but it’s a human who may not understand it’s a gunshot when they hear a silencer,” he said.