Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN Legal & Legislation

DeLauro to Introduce "AR-15 Upgrade Act of 2015"

Sunday, April 12, 2015

DeLauro to Introduce "AR-15 Upgrade Act of 2015"

Been thinking about retiring your old AR-15A1 and buying a suppressed, short-barreled AR for home protection? Need a new AR, because you’ve worn one out, shooting in Three-Gun matches? Been thinking about improving your AR with a mil-spec barrel and bolt carrier assembly, a “flat top” upper with a red dot sight, a low-profile handguard, and a more effective flash hider? 

If so, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has a plan that can help you.

This week, DeLauro said that she’s going to introduce legislation to provide a “$2,000 refundable tax credit” to anyone who turns an “assault weapon” over to a law enforcement agency. Depending on the market value of the gun you would give up to get that $2,000, DeLauro’s tax credit could be enough to pay for a new AR, a chest rig full of new “large” magazines, and a case of ammunition, and leave a few Ben Franklins in your wallet for other purposes. Make that two ARs, if the gun you hand over is that $85 SKS you bought in the 1990s.

Now, lest you think we’re pulling a belated April Fools’ prank here, we assure you that the bill is real. Called the Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for Our Streets (SAFER) Act of 2015, it’s a repeat of legislation DeLauro introduced in 2013. However, as the bill’s name indicates, helping you be better armed for defensive or any other purposes is not what DeLauro has in mind.

DeLauro is one of the most anti-gun members of Congress. She hates AR-15s and, like other anti-gunners, she has no regard for Americans' right to own them. As radical a gun control advocate as they come, DeLauro says, “Assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense. There is no reason on Earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for the battlefield.” 

Were we inclined to argue, we could point out that DeLauro is wrong. The AR-15 is the most popular rifle for defensive purposes today. It’s the most widely used rifle for marksmanship training and competitions centered on defensive firearm skills. And it’s illogical to claim that firearms aren’t “about . . . self-defense,” and in the next breath claim that they are “designed for the battlefield,” where everything is about surviving the enemy's attempt to kill you. 

But there’s no point in arguing with DeLauro or anyone else who thinks that if you have any right to firearms at all, it doesn’t extend to the most generally useful rifles on the planet. In their minds, anything that makes a firearm more effective or user-friendly argues against its legality.

Instead, let’s devote our energy to defeating such people at the polls and the insulting, disrespectful and intellectually bankrupt ideas they promote in the court of public opinion. And when we achieve victories, let’s capitalize on our momentum and roll up freedom’s adversaries like old carpet.

Over time, that’s precisely what’s been happening, of course. Since gun control supporters organized themselves in the 1970s, we have defeated their handgun bans, their semi-automatic rifle bans, their magazine bans, and their attempts to prevent people from being able to carry firearms for protection in most states.

Proportional to our successes, gun control supporters’ theories--“more guns means more crime” and the like--have been exposed to sunlight and have failed to survive that ultimate disinfectant. As a result, public opinion on gun issues is moving in the right direction.

Let’s keep it that way. The voters of Connecticut’s 3rd congressional district may continue to send to DeLauro to Washington, but we can render her and those like her politically irrelevant, by increasing our pro-Second Amendment majority in Congress and electing a pro-Second Amendment president in 2016. Victory is certain only when it is complete. And there’s still a ways to go.

TRENDING NOW
Trump’s DOJ Will Participate in Oral Arguments in Illinois Semi-Auto Ban Case

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

Trump’s DOJ Will Participate in Oral Arguments in Illinois Semi-Auto Ban Case

Within six months of the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022), Illinois disregarded the Court’s clear directives and enacted into law H.B. 5741, the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA). 

Armed Citizens: Not Just an American Concept

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

Armed Citizens: Not Just an American Concept

We frequently post stories about law-abiding citizens who, by exercising their rights protected under the Second Amendment, bring an end to violent criminal assaults.  

New York Law Imperils U.S. Olympic Target Shooting, Favors China’s Dominance

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

New York Law Imperils U.S. Olympic Target Shooting, Favors China’s Dominance

As U.S. shooting sports athletes prepare for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, New York law is burdening target shooters in the Empire State.

Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Yesterday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Siegel v. Platkin, striking some of the carry restrictions New Jersey enacted in response to the NRA’s landmark Supreme Court victory, New York State Rifle & ...

“Sensitive Places” Embolden Criminals and Threaten the Law-abiding

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

“Sensitive Places” Embolden Criminals and Threaten the Law-abiding

A beyond horrific murder flashed before our eyes in recent weeks, and a nation collectively mourned Iryna Zarutska after the sickening attack that took her life on a public train in Charlotte, North Carolina

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Pure gun control. As in disarmament and banning of firearms. It’s rare that anti-gunners get straight to the exact point that we have been warning of for decades. 

California: Legislature Adjourns with Anti-Gun Bills Headed to the Governor's Desk

Monday, September 15, 2025

California: Legislature Adjourns with Anti-Gun Bills Headed to the Governor's Desk

On Friday the California State Legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session in typical California fashion, advancing anti-gun legislation to Governor Newsom's desk. Contact Governor Newsome today and urge his veto of AB 1078, AB 1127, AB ...

Colorado: CSSA Files Suit Challenging "Polis Permission Slip" Permit-to-Purchase Law

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Colorado: CSSA Files Suit Challenging "Polis Permission Slip" Permit-to-Purchase Law

Last week, the Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA), the official state affiliate of NRA, filed a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 25-003...

Due Process: The Backbone of Legal Legitimacy

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

Due Process: The Backbone of Legal Legitimacy

Close observers of the gun debate often see references to due process.

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) may have thought he had scored against President Donald Trump in a recent war of words over rampant crime and the deployment of federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-led cities

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.