HR 3668 : SHARE Act

Position: Oppose Status: Died in a previous Congress

This bill has been put on a back burner but could become active. Call your Oregon legislators NOW and tell them to vote NO on HR 3668, the "SHARE" Act.

Oregon Federal Legislators:

Senator Ron Wyden: (503) 326-7525
Senator Jeff Merkley: (503) 326-3386
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici: (503) 469-6010
Rep. Greg Walden: (541) 389-4408
Rep. Earl Blumenauer: (503) 231-2300
Rep. Peter DeFazio: (541) 465-6732
Rep. Kurt Schrader: (503) 557-1324

SHARE (Sportsmen’s Heritage And Recreational Enhancement Act) is a tribute to the amount of money the National Rifle Association gave to the Trump election campaign.

SHARE was scheduled for a hearing on October 3, 2017 but was put on hold until early 2018 because of the Las Vegas massacre on October 1, 2017.

Update

September 17, 2018

The SHARE Act passed out of the Natural Resources Land Use Committee. The hearing for the bill was put on hold after the massacre in Las Vegas in which 58 people were killed and over 500 injured when a gunman used legal accessories to essentially a semi-automatic rifle into an automatic gun. Introduced by Rep. Duncan (R-NC3) and currently has 5 cosponsors (4 R, 1 D): Scott, Austin [R-GA8] (joined Sep 1, 2017) Wittman, Robert [R-VA1] (joined Sep 1, 2017) Carter, John [R-TX31] (joined Sep 6, 2017) Green, Gene [D-TX29] (joined Sep 7, 2017) Sessions, Pete [R-TX32] (joined Sep 14, 2017) The bill has several committee assignments: House Agriculture House Energy and Commerce House Natural Resources -Federal Lands -Water, Power and Oceans House Judiciary House Transportation and Infrastructure House Ways and Means

HR 3668, the so-called SHARE Act is an irresponsible piece of legislation that only serves to increase the profits of companies and organizations who engage in the sale of firearms, firearm accessories, or hunting-related activities. This bill is a collection of gun lobby-backed concepts that will boost firearm-related sales while endangering American lives.

Make no mistake: the SHARE Act is exactly the payback the NRA had in mind when it pumped $30 million into Trump’s 2016 election campaign. (Apparently, the NRA wants more for its millions than simply the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.)

This audacious show of placing gun industry profits before human lives was on sickening display during a September 12 hearing of H.R. 3668 in the House Natural Resource Committee.

Representatives from three organizations who will financially profit from this legislation testified in support of the SHARE Act. Anna Seidman, Director of Legislation for Safari Club International; Christopher Sharon, CEO of Hope for Warriors; and Stephen Halbrook, a lawyer who has litigated for the National Rifle Association each discussed how the bill will provide more business for their organizations.

Here’s how the SHARE Act will increase gun industry profits:

1. The gun lobbies, including the National Rifle Association and the American Suppressor Association, are interested in selling more firearms and firearm accessories including firearm silencers and lead-based ammunition. SHARE recklessly deregulates silencers, opening up a huge market for those products. The hunting-related industries hope that expanding hunting on public lands will boost the decline in people who hunt and the amount of money hunters spend.
2. The gun lobbies are working hard to be sure that people do not equate their deadly products with death and injury. They saw what happened to the tobacco lobby and they don’t want the same to happen to their products. Gutting firearm laws normalizes firearms despite clear evidence that guns do not make people safer. The SHARE Act also prohibits people from suing the U.S. government if they are shot at a firing range owned in whole or part by the U.S. government.

The SHARE Act will:

• Deregulate gun silencers:

  • Silencers would be removed from the purview of the National Firearms Act which means they would be much easier for criminals to purchase.

  • Unlicensed sellers and private sales would not require a background check for purchase or transfers of silencers.

  • The current registry of silencer sales will be destroyed.

• Weaken the regulation of interstate transport of firearms:

  • Law enforcement officers who stop to question people suspected of trafficking firearms across state lines could be sued personally for detaining the suspect.

  • The bill would no longer require firearms to be stored in a container or trunk. Guns would be allowed in the passenger compartment.

• Prohibit the regulation of ammunition and fish tackle based on lead content.
  • This allows lead from firearm ammunition and fish tackle to continue to pollute our forests and rivers.

• Allow guns on federal water resource developments.

  At this time, the Army Corps of Engineers has not disclosed to Ceasefire Oregon if guns will be allowed at dams, reservoirs, or levees.Guns were prohibited at dams after the September 11, 2001 attacks.)

• Remove the ATF’s authority to use the “sporting purposes” clauses in federal law as a guideline to ban certain firearms and to regulate guns.

  • The Gun Control Act of 1968 specifically banned imported firearms not suitable for “sporting purposes.”
  • The key phrase “sporting purpose” permits products with that designation to be less regulated and, therefore, easier to sell.  It’s one reason why the gun lobby does not want an AK 47 or AR 15 to be called an assault rifle; it prefers the sound of “modern sporting rifle” so as to escape regulation.

• Eliminates ATF’s authority to reclassify popular rifle ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition.”

• Provides for the lawful importation of any non-NFA firearm or ammunition that may otherwise be lawfully possessed and sold within the United States.

• The SHARE Act will likely increase the revenues of firearm-related industries but the real price will be paid in American lives lost to gun violence.

SHARE Act is an appalling dismantling of firearm safety and a blatant gift to the gun lobby.

For more information, read Dana Milbank’s excellent article in the Washington Post.

From Congress.gov: