Nobody would have been instantly “made a felon” by that bill. You’re referring to the fact that possession of certain magazines would have become illegal after a
six month grace period. Meaning owners would have had half a year to do whatever sell-back program, or just throw them down a hole or whatever they needed to do to no longer be in possession.
But that was reported very differently in certain media::
Virginia Dem who joined GOP to reject gun control bill says 2nd Amendment activists made a difference
www.foxnews.com
“In other words, if you went out and legally purchased a weapon or legally purchased a particular part, just simply by owning that you could become a class VI felon or class I misdemeanant. And that, to me, it's not fair, it's not due process, and that was what really bothered me the most”
^ That’s a quote by a state Senator, blatantly falsifying the meaning of the bill in a way that scares the shit out of people.
To your point about getting nothing — that bill
was the outcome of negotiation and compromise. The original version was a more aggressive ban of categories of weaponry, which was negotiated down to a ban on specific components which have no realistic value for hunting or home defense. Once the compromises were made, the NRA and other gun lobbyists continued to come up with new reasons to vote against it, and the whole thing failed. So from where I’m sitting, I’m not seeing a lot of willingness to actually come to a compromise to address the
very obvious problems in the status quo.
I’m just seeing politicians who are bought out by lobbyists to say “no” to anything that crosses their desk, no matter how compromised and reasonable. Which in turn leads to an inability to govern the issue, which leads to radicals gaining influence and coming up with ways to subvert the process. You don’t want that, I don’t want that, nobody should want that. Enough is enough with allowing the dumbest and most corrupt people in the room to dominate the process.