SOS! Info needed ASAP on silver-medal SP in London

[Mike M.]

We're fighting an "assault weapons" ban here in Maryland...and the wording was cloned from the California law that casued such a ruckus when it turned out they had just banned most of the Olympic target pistols.

I know that Pardinis were used by all the RF medalists, and by the Gold and Bronze medalists in SP. But was the silver medalist shooting a FWB AW93 or a Benelli? I need to know IMMEDIATELY. Thanks.

[David Levene]

Morini

[Mike M.]

Many thanks. This bill would outlaw any pistol with a magazine outside the grip...which happens to include ALL the medal-winning pistols for RF and SP at the London Games.

[conradin]

I think all Olympic pistols are automatically exempt under federal laws. Let's hope we won't ended up like the UK. Their Morini CM84E long arm is UGLY.

[conradin]

Many thanks. This bill would outlaw any pistol with a magazine outside the grip...which happens to include ALL the medal-winning pistols for RF and SP at the London Games.

Find the bill sponsor and actually talk to him/her instead of writing. Remind her of the exemption list.

[FredB]

I think all Olympic pistols are automatically exempt under federal laws.

"Automatically exempt" from what? There is no federal law dealing with "Olympic pistols", nor will there be any "Olympic exemption" if Feinstein's "assault weapon" law passes.

FredB

[Joakim]

If the bill is, as you say, a clone of this, then there is already a (non-federal) exemption for ISSF-style pistols. The California text specifically exempted all relevant Benelli, Hämmerli, Pardini and Walther models, and made provisions for amending newer models as they came, based on recommendations from USAS (the current Morini models, for example, were not around when it was written). That's the final text of the bill, of course—I'm sure you're right about the ruckus in its history.

Naturally, it would be much better if the laws could be written in such a way as to avoid lists of exempt models. But I do see the problem: if you want to ban the TEC-9, for instance, while still allowing the ISSF-style pistols and allowing ordinary 9mm handguns, how are you going to phrase that, without opening unintended loopholes? If you have an answer to that question, I'm sure the legislators in question are interested. Nobody wants or means to call a Hämmerli SP20 an assault weapon.

… on the other hand, if the problem is with large-capacity magazines, then why not just ban the magazines instead of the guns? Although the billion-dollar business of manufacturing 30-round GSP magazines would suffer, of course…

[FredB]

If the bill is, as you say, a clone of this, then there is already a (non-federal) exemption for ISSF-style pistols...That's the final text of the bill, of course—I'm sure you're right about the ruckus in its history.

Getting the exemption was a major effort, which then had to be repeated to get the ability to update the list. This exemption is very unlikely to happen at the federal level, and is, by all indications, omitted from Feinstein's bill.

Nobody wants or means to call a Hämmerli SP20 an assault weapon.

Not so. When Don Perata, President Pro-Tem of the California Senate, was told about how his law ( he was the main sponsor of it) affected Lauren Santibanez' ability to compete in the Olympics, his response was "Let her move to Texas." He and several others had to be outvoted to pass the exemption.

FredB

[Mike M.]

We're in a very ugly fight here in Maryland.