Feinstein Tried 'Common Use' Argument, Didn't Realize NRA Fact-Check Was Coming
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has found herself in the figurative crosshairs of the NRA after making some highly questionable comments about the AR-15 rifle.
Feinstein, a noted gun control advocate for years, made the comments earlier this month during the second day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Of note, Feinstein is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is in charge of confirming Kavanaugh.
Grilling Kavanaugh over his opinion on the constitutionality of bans on assault weapons, Feinstein slipped in a comment that caught the attention of many.
“I’m talking about your statement on ‘common use,'” Feinstein said to Kavanaugh according to Fox News. “Assault weapons are not in common use.”
The NRA promptly jumped on Feinstein’s comments regarding “common use.”
.@SenFeinstein is right about ONE thing in this exchange: She’s on an entirely different wavelength than everyday Americans.
FACT: AR-15s are the most commonly used rifles for competitions, sporting, and home-defense. #KavanaughConfirmationHearings pic.twitter.com/bxv4EONYSl
— NRA (@NRA) September 6, 2018
“FACT: AR-15s are the most commonly used rifles for competitions, sporting, and home-defense,” the NRA posted on its official Twitter account.
It’s a pretty powerful rebuttal of Feinstein’s claim that AR-15’s are not in “common use.” It doesn’t get much more “common” than being one of the most popular rifles currently being used in America.
“Needless to say, there is nothing ‘reasonable’ or moderate about banning what is literally the most popular class of rifles in America,” the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action said in a statement released Friday.
The NRA-ILA also went on to slam the common connection placed between the AR-15 and other guns of its kind with mass shootings.
“And the relative infrequency with which any sort of rifle (semiautomatic or not) is used in violent crime underscores the fact that the Americans who are buying these guns by the millions do so for lawful purposes,” the statement said.
Citing a study from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the NRA-ILA argued that between 1990 and 2016, “there have been approximately 16,069,000 AR and AK semi-automatic rifles available for sale in the United States.”
As it turned out, during the confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh handled Feinstein’s line of questioning with aplomb.
“Semi-automatic rifles are widely possessed in the United States,” Kavanaugh responded to Feinstein. “There are millions and millions… That seemed to fit the (definition of) ‘common use’ and not being a dangerous and unusual weapon.”
Check out the exchange here:
Look, I get Feinstein’s game. She is a staunch opponent of the Second Amendment.
She will never make life easy for law-abiding gun owners.
But if you’re going to attack gun owners — and the Constitution — with alleged “facts,” you should probably double-check those facts. Lest someone check-facts you in a very public manner.
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