Why Is Feinstein Going After Squirrel Hunting Guns?

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The Assault Weapons Ban List Includes Some Curious Picks

You have to hand it to Congresswoman Dianne Feinstein. She’s etched out a 20-plus year career, paid for by taxpayers, in which she gets to act out what appears to be a delusional fantasy.

Her latest hallucinations were manifested during a sensational press conference on January 24, 2013. She called for a ban of 157 specifically-named “assault weapons,” which includes of all things a squirrel hunting gun.

Feinstein knows she can bamboozle most Americans. People not acquainted with firearms will read her list and not spend one iota of effort to think critically about them.

If a gun’s on the list, it must be evil. No one “needs” it.

Now, I don’t buy into the notion that the guns of law-abiding citizens should be banned because one happened to be used in the commission of a crime. Even so, what no rational person can explain is why Feinstein is targeting guns like the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 22LR — which if you’re a tree-dwelling rodent with a bushy tail is one very scary gun.

Gun Digest readers know the .22LR rimfire is an effective small game cartridge. It’s designed for shooting rabbits or for target practice — and the competitive shooting sports.

I’m not suggesting guns chambered in .22LR don’t need to be treated with the same level of respect as other guns — they most certainly do. But I don’t recollect anyone claiming they were designed “for nothin' but shooting people.” After all, was that not the purported purpose of this proposed gun ban?

Of course, the Smith & Wesson .22’s real problem is that it’s condemned right out of the box simply because it looks like an AR-15. It’s a scary-looking gun just asking to be banned.

It is semi-automatic (don’t tell Feinstein about all the tubular-magazine fed semi-auto .22s out there) and it has a “clip” (ignoramus speak for “mag.”). Abandoning even pretended pretexts about keeping kids safe, the inclusion of this very effective squirrel rifle in Feinstein’s list proves beyond a shadow of a doubt for the watching world the blatant intellectual dishonesty of this cosmetic gun ban — a ban built upon manipulation and exploitation of tragedy for political gain.

Not only that, but the fact that the AR-15s on her list (those commonly chambered in .223 Rem. or 5.56 NATO) are quite literally the most popular predator hunting rifles in use today — for varmint hunting of coyotes, fox and other furbearers — flies in the face of the Congresswoman’s claim to be protecting hunting rifles.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Feinstein chose to smear the Barrett M107A1 and M82A1 .50 caliber rifles as well, which weigh about as much as an outboard motor and are just about the most impractical guns any would-be criminal could ever choose. Imagine someone trying to lug around a five-foot long, 30-pound rifle that costs between $5-10 per round to shoot.

Politicians have been looking for excuses to go after .50 caliber rifles for years and, since they can’t find them used in any crimes, the new tactic is to simply make an assertion that they are “assault rifles” by virtue of their being semi-automatic and thus need to be banned.

It’s the same thing with the third exhibit on Feinstein’s list. The Ruger Mini-14 Tactical M-14/20CF, which is only differentiated from Ruger’s Mini-14 Tactical M-14/20GBCP model in that it sports a scary-looking (her opinion, apparently) collapsible stock. In every other respect it functions in exactly the same manner. It shoots the same round. At the same rate of fire.

The only thing upstaging this level of deceit and absurdity — not to mention gargantuan waste of taxpayer funds at a time when the country can’t afford it — is the widespread ignorance about firearms underpinning all this that allows these fabrications to be taken seriously in public policy making. It is truly obscene.

Clear-thinking people can conclude only one thing.  Even a cursory examination of the guns being targeted by congress shows Feinstein got tripped up in her own subterfuge. It reveals to everyone that her stated justification for the proposed gun ban is phony.

Make no mistake. This is about pushing an agenda, pure and simple. Hell, even a blind squirrel can see that much.