* This section is clearly the worst provision in the bill as it would apply the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) to gun dealers. In fact, this provision would apply RICO to ALL Title 18 firearms offenses, including simple paperwork violations. This means that a gun dealer, manufacturer, or owner can be treated like a Mafia hit man, and thus be sent to prison for up to twenty years for two record-keeping mistakes. Moreover, the dealer’s business can be forfeited — along with his home, car and any other possession he used in connection with his gun business.

* Further, this provision would allow organizations like Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) to bring cases in federal court for “injured parties” (such as Bill Cosby or any other family that has suffered from a firearms related injury) and sue the manufacturer or the dealer that sold the gun. If successful, HCI — or its “prearranged plaintiff” — would recover three times the actual damages, plus attorney’s fees in each suit. HCI would only need to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the manufacturer, dealer or importer had committed more than one record-keeping violation, and that it supposedly led to the victim’s injury.

* This section could punish an otherwise honest gun owner with a 10-year mandatory prison sentence if he ran afoul of virtually any of the federal code’s more esoteric gun laws — even if the infraction is merely a possession or paperwork charge. As stated by David Kopel, noted gun researcher and author, any of the following scenarios would hit otherwise honest gun owners with huge jail times if S. 10 were to pass:

a. A father and a mother take their teenage children target shooting every weekend one summer. The teenagers use their parents’ handgun, under parental supervision. Although the teenagers are under continuous parental supervision, the teenagers do not possess and keep in their possession at all times a written note from their parents authorizing the children to possess a handgun at the target range.

b. Three adult men often go hunting together, and like to tinker with their rifles. One afternoon, they put a folding stock on one of their rifles, to make it easier to carry in the field. Another day, they put a muzzle brake on the rifle, to make the follow-up shot more accurate.

* All of the “offenders” above could be treated as “criminal street gangs” under S. 10 and could be hit with a minimum of 10 years in jail. In brief, “gangs” are defined as an association of 3 or more people who commit even two (firearms-related) paperwork or possession offenses that constitute a “primary activity” of the group.