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31 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. Inter Alia 10 (2013)

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              YALE LAW & POLICY REVIEW



   The  Restricted   Firearms   License:   A Proposal to Preserve
   Second  Amendment Rights and Reduce Gun Violence in
                          the  United   States


                 Egon D. Cohen* and Kristina M. Johnson**



INTRODUCTION

    In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown,  CT, President Obama  and others have called for legislative measures
to combat gun violence.' So far, most of these proposals have focused on three
principal approaches: (i) making all firearms transfers subject to National In-
stant Criminal Background Check  System (NICS)  approval, (2) limiting fire-
arm  magazine capacity, and (3) banning models of semi-automatic firearms
that possess certain military purpose features.3



     University Fellow, Department of Religion, Temple University.
     CEO, Enduring Hydro. Dr. Johnson has previously served as U.S. Under Secretary
     of Energy and Provost of Johns Hopkins University.
1.   See, e.g., Jonathan Karl, Devin Dwyer, & Mary Bruce, President Obama Unveils
     Sweeping  Plan to  Curb  Gun   Violence, ABC  NEWS   (Jan. 16, 2003),
     http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/president-obama-unveils-sweeping-plan-
     curb-gun-violence/story?id=18228472; Dianne Feinstein et al., Assault Weapons
     Ban  of 2013 (Jan. 24, 2013), http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm
     /files/serve/?File-id= dd2252ao-db96-45cc-96a8-493a2e348c6d.
2.   The NICS program is operated by the FBI, which maintains a database of persons
     prohibited from purchasing firearms by 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (2006). This database is
     then accessed electronically to approve each individual firearms transfer at feder-
     ally licensed firearms dealers. See FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, NATIONAL
     INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND  CHECK  SYSTEM (NICS) (April 2012), available
     at http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/general-information/nics-overview
3.   These three features are common to the Obama Administration proposal and the
     proposed legislation of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. THE WHITE HOUSE, Now IS THE
     TIME: THE PRESIDENT'S PLAN TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN AND OUR COMMUNI-
     TIES BY REDUCING  GUN  VIOLENCE  (Jan. 16, 2013), available at http://www


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