Collins Introduces Bill to Eliminate Unconstitutional "Sporting Purpose" Distinction in Gun Laws

Statement

Today, Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) introduced legislation to eliminate the "sporting purpose" distinction contained in the Internal Revenue Code and the Federal Criminal Code. H.R. 2277 restores Second Amendment protections to all firearms.

The 1968 Gun Control Act created the "sporting purposes" distinction for all imported firearms, declaring that they must "be generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes."

Collins: "This distinction is a regulatory infringement that has been used to prevent citizens from fully exercising their Second Amendment rights. There is no enumerated definition of a "sporting purpose" in U.S. law, and no concrete standard of criteria has ever been established by regulation. The phrase is arbitrary and has been subjectively imposed and definition by unelected bureaucrats at the ATF.

"This distinction has been used to ban certain type of imports--particularly through executive order. But it also impacts many of my constituents. For example, 18 USC § 922 imposes a ban on temporarily lending or renting firearms across state lines unless such action is permitted by the state, or unless it is for a "sporting purpose.' This means that it is currently illegal under federal law to lend a firearm to a resident of a non-permitting state for self-defense. This legislation restores the second amendment protection to all guns, not just those arbitrarily classified as used for "sporting purposes."

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