Details

• Sponsor - Nadler
• Proposed - September 14, 2005
• Congressional Record Link - HA540
• Amends - H.R. 3132
• Amendments - None.
• Vote - September 14, 2005, Amendment passed by voice vote.

• Results - H.R. 3132 has passed out of the House and sits in the Senate Judiciary committee.No change in law.

Synopsis

This amendment would criminalize possession of firearms by anyone "who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor sex offense against a minor". 

Testimony of Rep. Nadler from the Congressional Record:

For example, we prohibit anyone convicted of a crime of domestic violence, whether a felony or a misdemeanor, from purchasing or possessing a gun. Shockingly, we do not prohibit the sale or possession of guns to people convicted of misdemeanor sex crimes against

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a minor. We should not treat child sex offenders any more leniently with respect to possessing guns than we do domestic abusers.

Obviously Rep. Nadler considers this an extension of the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment.

Analysis

What comes to mind when we think of sex offenders is some 50 year old perv cruising the streets grabbing kids as he goes. That kind of person is not what is addressed here. That perv would be up on a lot more than only child abuse. Think of things like kidnapping and rape - felonies all. This perv would already be a felon and a prohibited person.

What about the nineteen year old high school student who starts a relationship with the seventeen year old student? Would a conviction on this offense justify lifelong loss of Second Amendment rights? 

We fear that this law would be used to go after people who had indiscretions in their teen years.

If an offender is truly worthy of losing his firearm rights for life, he should have been convicted of a crime that would warrant more than a year in jail and already be a prohibited person. Otherwise, no.

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