Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 5, 2013, after a closed-door committee vote on CIA director nominee John Brennan. The committee voted Tuesday to approve President Barack Obama's pick to lead the CIA after winning a behind-the-scenes battle with the White House over access to a series of top-secret legal opinions that justify the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects, including American citizens. Credit: AP
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun control Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) shot down a proposed amendment to her "assault weapons" ban that would exempt military veterans from the gun ban. She also made some questionable claims.
Pushing a ban on high-capacity magazines, Feinstein argued that it is "legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines."
Here's her dubious rationale:
"The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons. The other very important part of this bill is to ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices, those that hold more than 10 rounds. We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it's legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines. Limiting magazine capacity is critical because it is when a criminal, a drug dealer, a deranged individual has to pause to change magazines and reload that the police or brave bystanders have the opportunity to take that individual down."
During the same hearing, she also argued that a military veteran could be mentally ill and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), therefore should be prevented from buying the semi-automatic weapons that would be banned in her bill.
The California Democrat also made the bizarre claim that the "advent of PTSD" is a "new phenomenon" and a "product of the Iraq war."
Here's exactly what she said in context: "The problem with expanding this is that, you know, with the advent of PTSD, which I think is a new phenomenon as a product of the Iraq War, it’s not clear how the seller or transferrer of a firearm covered by this bill would verify that an individual was a member, or a veteran, and that there was no impairment of that individual with respect to having a weapon like this."
(H/T: Real Clear Politics)
Featured image via AP
