The gun control debate in Missouri has gotten really heated. Like, violent.
In response to Democratic Representative Rory Ellinger's recently introduced assault weapon ban bill, Representative Eric Burlison, a Republican, published a video on YouTube yesterday with the title "2nd Amendment puts holes in HB 545." Burlison goes around interviewing regular folks about why they think Ellinger's bill is so darn crazy.
But then the video takes a surprise turn: "It's a great bill," says one dude, with a rifle in hand. Really?
"It's great target practice."
Yikes.
Here's the video, posted yesterday.
As you can see for yourself, the video takes a dark turn, when a shooter points his rifle at a physical copy of House Bill 545 and proceeds to fire five loud shots into the piece of paper.
And Burlison then examines the printout -- punctured with bullet holes -- noting that yes, in fact, it does make good target practice.
That's one way to express opposition.
The bill has sparked a lot of debate in the last few days since its introduction. As written, the Assault Weapons and Large Capacity Magazines measure prohibits any person, corporation or other entity in Missouri from manufacturing, importing, possessing, purchasing, selling or transferring any assault weapon or large capacity magazine, as defined in the measure.
Any violation would be considered a class C felony. One of the most controversial components of the bill is the specification that any person who was legally in possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine prior to enactment would have 90 days to remove the weapon from the state or surrender it to law enforcement for destruction.
The bill outlines which guns fall under the "assault weapon" category, including semi-automatic pistols or rifles that have the capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition.
The pro-gun representatives in Missouri are, very unsurprisingly, very unpleased.
Just ask Burlison and the law-abiding gun owners he interviewed.
Here's the bill.
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