Virginia Senator Kaine Introduces Bill to Turn Innocent Mistakes into Felonies

By Justin Stakes

Fairfax, VA -(AmmoLand.com)- On Tuesday; September 8th, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced what he is calling the “Responsible Transfer of Firearms Act.”

As The Hill amusingly noted, “It is the latest gun bill introduced by Democrats that is unlikely to pass through a Republican-controlled Congress.”

And with good reason. Sen. Kaine’s current anti-gun effort is incomprehensible and unconstitutional. And that, unfortunately, is not a laughing matter.

Current law prohibits transferring a firearm to a person “knowing or having reasonable cause to believe” that the person falls into one of the federally prohibited categories. Appropriately, the prosecution has to prove the transferor knew or had reason to know of the recipient’s prohibited status. The law, of course, does not presume that everyone who seeks to acquire a firearm has a criminal record or intends to use the firearm for a criminal purpose, nor does it require those who transfer firearms to make this presumption.

Under Sen. Kaine’s bill, however, a person would be held strictly liable for transferring a firearm to a prohibited person, unless he or she could somehow demonstrate having “taken reasonable steps …read more

Source:: AmmoLand