Strict Gun-Control Bill Introduced by Democrats in Congress Remains Stuck in Committee

A gun-control bill floating in Congress this year would be making many Arizonans quake in their boots, if only the mainstream media would report on it.

House of Representatives bill HR45, introduced by Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush in January, would mandate the registration of every handgun and magazine-fed rifle in the country. Possession of an unlicensed firearm would be a crime. Private sales of guns would be outlawed. And in households with kids, it would be illegal to fail to store firearms in a gun safe.

Despite the state's robust gun culture, the Arizona Republic hasn't written any news articles about the bill, judging by an archive search on its Web site. Bloggers, though, have been having a field day with it.

Perhaps the media hasn't focused on it because the bill hasn't picked up any steam.

"It's sort of stuck in committee and it doesn't have any co-sponsors," says Katie Orme, spokeswoman for Republican Congressman John Shadegg. "It's definitely not being fast-tracked in any way."

Orme says that, without even asking Shadegg, she knows he'd find the bill, at best, "useless government intervention."

But we're curious what the state's growing Democratic leadership in Congress thinks about mandating gun registration in the United States. We called the offices of Harry Mitchell, Gabrielle Giffords and Ann Kirkpatrick. We'll update this post with their responses, if we get them.


Adam Bozzi, Mitchell's communication director, says the congressman hasn't taken a stance on the bill. Bozzi declined to ask Mitchell directly whether he supports mandatory handgun registration.
