This petition is to repeal “The Hughes Amendment” as part of the Firearm Owners Protection Act, H.R. 4332 as the ban has no discernible benefit. We the people ask that this violation of our rights as free law abiding citizens of the United States be removed.

We do not support crimes committed with firearms. Purchasing, owning, carrying a firearm, or multiple firearms, or type of firearm is a choice to be made by a law abiding citizen and should never be illegal or restricted.

The NFA places an inalienable right under the whims of government regulators. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have no set guidelines. They can and often do enforce their unconstitutional will upon citizens. The NFA drives up the cost of many firearms through supply and demand effectively denying the legal right to all but the wealthy. The inaccessibility of arms to poorer citizens results in higher crime rates and denies them equal protection under the law. Yet the entertainment industry has access but law abiding, tax paying citizens do not and that is a travesty.

The Hughes Amendment does not prevent crimes committed with firearms, The NFA of 1934 imposes more taxes upon the law abiding citizen if they wish to possess them. This is not exclusive to machine guns. It includes suppressors, short barreled rifles (SBR), short barreled shotguns (SBS), and what the ATF defines as Any Other Weapon (AOW). I personally own a, by legal terms, a pistol. This "pistol" is modeled after an HK MP5K and can be legally outfitted with a "pistol brace" these braces can be retractable/folding and can be placed in the shoulder. This means it can be used for the same purpose with the same effectiveness as a stock. However if I were to purchase a folding/retractable stock it requires a tax stamp and $200 fee. I then cannot remove the stock and use the firearm as it was originally intended like a pistol because it would change the weapon classification from SBR to pistol. This is absolutely unjustifiable as the function and usability of the firearm remains the same and is nothing more than an inconvenience for users who wish to change parts on their personal firearms. This weapon is also, from the factor, compatible with fully automatic parts that can be purchased on the internet without regulation. This allows individual to manufacture machine guns but no option to legally register said machine gun making owning it a felony. With these parts being legalized again and allowing individuals to register them it would allow the ATF a means to know who owns a manufactured machine gun without legal repercussions.

It is fact that after the NFA of 1934 was signed into law only one murder was committed with a legally registered machine gun. This is up to present day 2012! Law abiding citizens are not criminals. Guncite.com references Targeting Guns, authored by Gary Kleck. They cite: “In 1980, when Miami's homicide rate was at an all-time high, less than 1% of all homicides involved machine guns. (Miami was supposedly a "machine gun Mecca" and drug trafficking capital of the U.S.) Although there are no national figures to compare to, machine gun deaths were probably lower elsewhere. Kleck cites several examples:

(a.) Of 2,200 guns recovered by Minneapolis police (1987-1989), not one was fully automatic.
(b.) A total of 420 weapons, including 375 guns, were seized during drug warrant executions and arrests by the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad (Will and Grundie counties in the Chicago metropolitan area, 1980-1989). None of the guns was a machine gun.
(c.) 16 of 2,359 (0.7%) of the guns seized in the Detroit area (1991-1992) in connection with "the investigation of narcotics trafficking operations" were machine guns.”

What defines a criminal? Webster's Dictionary defines a criminal as: “one who has committed a crime, a person who has been convicted of a crime.” Therefore, if criminals do not follow rule of law, then why would they follow steps in order to possess a firearm or certain firearm legally? What law abiding citizens want and cannot possess, criminals already possess.

Gun control only starves the average law abiding citizen their 2nd Amendment rights; rights given to us by our founding fathers and guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution is an amazing document, forged in blood and souls of men fighting to be free; free from tyranny of government. There is a reason it is the 2nd Amendment after all. They believed in it's importance to maintain the Constitution in and of itself and keep people free.

George Washington said: “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them which would include their own government.” “‎Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour.”

Benjamin Franklin said: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

Thomas Jefferson said: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

Teddy Roosevelt said: "No man who refuses to bear arms can give sound reason why he should be allowed to live in a free country."

We are proud to be American citizens. Many of us are veterans, law enforcement, and first responders. As such, we swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States. This oath we do not take lightly. We live by it because we love our country and what it stands for. We see the necessity of firearms everyday. There is no need to fear them, we respect them as taught at a very young age the consequence of mishandling them. That is why we set to educate the people who fear them so they too can defend themselves against lawless criminals.

We the people, ask for the repeal of “The Hughes Amendment” as there was no basis for it's passage.