Blair Holt Firearm Owner Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2019
A BILL
To provide for the implementation of a system of licensing for purchasers of certain firearms and for a record of sale system for those firearms, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings and purposes
Findings— Congress finds that—
the manufacture, distribution, and importation of firearms is inherently commercial in nature;
firearms regularly move in interstate commerce;
to the extent that firearms trafficking is intrastate in nature, it arises out of and is substantially connected with a commercial transaction that, when viewed in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce;
because the intrastate and interstate trafficking of firearms are so commingled, full regulation of interstate commerce requires the incidental regulation of intrastate commerce;
firearm-related assaults in the United States—
during the 16-year period between 2001 and 2016, were associated with the majority of homicides and half of all suicides; and
during the 15-year period between 2001 and 2015, were the seventh leading cause of nonfatal violent injuries;
on the afternoon of May 10, 2007, Blair Holt, a junior at Julian High School in Chicago, was killed on a public bus riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting;
since 2007, when 32 students and teachers were killed at Virginia Tech, 7 of the 11 most deadly mass shootings in the United States have taken place;
since 2012, when 20 first graders and teachers were murdered with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, more than 230 school shootings have occurred in the United States;
in 2015, there were 294 mass shootings, including, notably, the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina, the theatre shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, and the Isla Vista community shootings in California;
since 2016, the country has witnessed 4 of the 10 worst gun massacres in modern United States history; and
in February 2018, 17 members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School community in Parkland, Florida, lost their lives at the hands of a 19-year-old armed with an AR–15 semiautomatic assault rifle.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of Congress that—
firearms trafficking is prevalent and widespread in and among the States, and it is usually impossible to distinguish between intrastate trafficking and interstate trafficking; and
it is in the national interest and within the role of the Federal Government to ensure that the regulation of firearms is uniform among the States, that law enforcement can quickly and effectively trace firearms used in crime, and that firearms owners know how to use and safely store their firearms.
Purposes— The purposes of this Act and the amendments made by this Act are—
to protect the public against the unreasonable risk of injury and negligent or reckless death associated with the unrecorded sale or transfer of qualifying firearms to criminals and youths;
to ensure that owners of qualifying firearms are knowledgeable in the safe use, handling, and storage of those firearms;
to restrict the availability of qualifying firearms to criminals, youth, and other persons prohibited by Federal law from receiving firearms;
to facilitate the tracing of qualifying firearms used in crime by Federal and State law enforcement agencies; and
to hold criminally and civilly liable those who facilitate the transfer of qualifying firearms, causing risk of injury and negligent or reckless death associated with the transfer of those qualifying firearms.
Sec. 3 Definitions
In general— In this Act, the terms firearm, qualifying firearm, and State have the meanings given those terms in section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, as amended by subsection (b).
Title 18, United States Code— Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(36) The term detachable ammunition feeding device—
“(A) means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that—
“(i) is capable of being detached from a semiautomatic rifle; and
“(ii) has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition; and
“(B) does not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.
“(37) The term firearm owner license means a license issued under section 923(m).
“(38) The term qualifying firearm—
“(A) means—
“(i) a handgun; or
“(ii) a semiautomatic rifle that is capable of accepting a detachable ammunition feeding device; and
“(B) does not include an antique firearm.”