California Congressman Kevin Mullin has apparently discovered something previously unknown to physics: a firearm without fire.
His Garrett’s Law would classify certain powerful airguns as “firearms” under federal law. There is one minor engineering problem with this brilliant idea.
Airguns use air.
Firearms use combustion (fire).
Apparently Washington needed a congressman to straighten out several centuries of mechanical engineering.
But Mullin has stumbled into an even bigger problem: the Second Amendment doesn’t say “firearms.” It says “Arms.”
That distinction matters.
The Founders didn’t write, “the right of the people to keep and bear whatever weapons Congress hasn’t creatively redefined this Tuesday shall not be infringed.”
Powerful air rifles can absolutely kill people. So can bows, crossbows, knives and pickup trucks. Lethality doesn’t magically turn compressed air into gunpowder.
Mullin’s bill arose from an actual tragedy involving a constituent who died by suicide using a powerful airgun. That deserves compassion. But tragedy doesn’t suspend physics, language or constitutional scrutiny.
And this is where Americans should look across the Pacific.
Australia hasn’t completely prohibited civilian airguns. It did something more bureaucratically interesting: jurisdictions such as Victoria regulate airguns within their firearms licensing system. That’s the road Americans ought to recognize when somebody says, Relax, we’re only regulating the really powerful ones.
Today it’s a .177 (4.5mm) air rifle exceeding some government velocity threshold.
Tomorrow?
Well, Washington has never met a “reasonable regulation” it couldn’t eventually turn into an entire federal bureaucracy. Maybe we need a new, Federal Department of AirGun Regulation…
Millions of Americans learned firearm safety and marksmanship with BB guns and air rifles. Scouts, 4-H, JROTC, junior clubs and Olympic shooters use them precisely because they’re accessible training tools.
If Congressman Mullin wants America to regulate air rifles like Australia, he should simply say so and defend that proposition.
But please don’t insult our intelligence by pretending air became fire because Congress passed a law.
Congress can redefine the word “firearm.” It cannot redefine physics.
Although I’m sure somebody in Sacramento is working on a bill to change the laws of physics.
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