Last week Congressman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York, submitted a bill to ban semi-automatic firearms. It came as no surprise, considering McCarthy has been a rabid gun banner since her husband was killed over 10 years ago. Mrs. McCarthy calls this a "reauthorization" of the original 1994 Clinton Gun Ban, but looking at the text of the bill, you'll see that it goes many steps forward to abridging your freedom.

For starters, while the original bill keyed off of guns having two or more scary looking features, this bill lowers the threshhold to just one. That means any gun with a detachable magazine and just one of the following would be banned: pistol grip, heat shield, folding stock, threaded barrel, forward grip. This is virtually all semi-automatics.

The bill also seeks to ban guns by name, including many that are almost 80 years old. The M1 Carbine, the Thompson, SKS, and any variant of the AK-47 or AR-15 are named explicitly. Geez, the Thompson dates back to the 1920s and shoots .45 caliber handgun loads.

Even worse, the bill seeks to ban any firearm that "is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General". So the legality of your right to keep and bear arms could be subject to the whim of an appointed government official, the same official, mind you, that is charged with prosecuting the laws of the United States. How's that for conflict of interest?

So far there are no co-signers to this bill, and let's hope that it doesn't even have a chance in the House.

(Hat tip: Say Uncle)