Jamie Raskin rips GOP over bill to sell 'hand grenades' to 'domestic violence' offenders

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) slammed Republicans for pushing a bill that he said would allow retired law enforcement officers to buy used firearms and hand grenades without a background check.

During a House floor speech on the Federal Law Enforcement Officer Service Weapon Purchase Act, Raskin noted that Democrats supported the bill until Republicans stripped out safety measures that would have prevented retired officers with criminal offenses from purchasing weapons.

"Republicans filled the bill with a menagerie of more outlandish and extreme provisions, and that's the version that they started with in this Congress, which is before us today," he explained. "The bill before us today would allow surplus firearms to be sold not only to active federal law enforcement officers in good standing, but also to retired law enforcement officers."

"Because the bill also now has no background check requirement, it would create a situation in which it would be possible for an officer to retire, commit a crime like domestic violence or assault, that would ordinarily render him or her ineligible to purchase and possess firearms, but then still be able to buy a firearm from the federal government without any background check at all," he continued. "While the bill includes a good standing requirement, as they remind us, this is plainly meaningless as applied to retired officers who may have left a department in perfectly good standing, but could not pass a background check today."

Raskin noted that the bill also went beyond allowing current and former officers to buy retired handguns.

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"The bill also allows for the sale of any firearm except machine guns," he observed. "That includes not just handguns, but also assault weapons, destructive devices like hand grenades, and even firearms that are subject to heightened restrictions under the National Firearms Act."

"And it allows them to be sold at salvage value," Raskin added, "effectively making it so that the federal government and the taxpayers would actually be subsidizing gun sales."

"That means if an officer uses not just a handgun, but an assault rifle, a grenade launcher, anything classified as a destructive device, any firearm or destructive device used by a SWAT team, any firearm or destructive device used by the Secret Service, so long as it's not a machine gun."

Watch the video below from C-SPAN.