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Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act Introduced
sitnews.us ^ | 12 October, 2011 | Office of U.S. Senator Mark Begich

Posted on 10/13/2011 5:10:16 AM PDT by marktwain

October 12, 2011 Wednesday

(SitNews) - U.S Senators Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have introduced the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act. The bill allows for the interstate sale of firearms and removes several antiquated and unnecessary restrictions imposed on interstate firearms transactions.

“Current laws restricting interstate commerce of firearms not only lag behind common sense and new technology, they are unfair and burdensome,” Sen. Begich said. “This legislation cleans up decades-old laws that are unnecessarily restricting the rights of Alaskans and other Americans to purchase and sell firearms.”

“Utahns and Americans everywhere have a right to bear arms, and this legislation ensures that onerous and outdated restrictions on everyone’s Second Amendment rights are no longer in place,” Sen. Hatch said. “By removing these restrictions, we can ensure that the constitutional freedoms we seek to protect remain intact.”

“The National Instant Criminal Background Check System has made many restrictions enacted in 1968 obsolete. It’s time to bring the law into the 21st century. This important legislation will modernize and streamline interstate firearms transactions. The NRA and gun owners across the nation thank Senators Hatch and Begich for their leadership on this issue,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.

The Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act removes a number of restrictions from the Gun Control Act of 1968, which only allowed licensed dealers to sell rifles and shot guns to residents of a different state under a lengthy series of conditions. The restrictions were supposed to prevent buyers from evading “background checks” available at the time, which were mainly carried out through state laws requiring local police chiefs to issue firearms permits.

However, since 1998, all people buying firearms from dealers in the U.S. have been subject to computerized background checks under the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System; a system much more sophisticated and advanced than what was available in 1968. As a result, the complex system of state laws currently restricting the interstate commerce of firearms is outdated. In some cases, current law requires citizens to jump through so many hoops, it hinders or even prevents these sales.

The new law would allow:

* Individuals to buy handguns, as well as rifles or shotguns, from licensed dealers in another state, subject to the background check requirement. The buyer and dealer would still have to meet in person and comply with the laws of both states;

* Dealers to engage in their business at gun shows in other states, but would have to comply with the laws in the state where the gun show takes place;

* The bill would reduce theft and loss of firearms during shipment between dealers by getting rid of a provision that says dealers may not transfer firearms to one another face to face, away from their business premises. Currently, dealers who agree on a sale are forced to return to their businesses and ship firearms to one another which involves some risk of theft or loss. The new law would allow an in-person exchange.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the House.

Source of News:

Office of U.S. Senator Mark Begich www.begich.senate.gov


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1968; ak; banglist; interstate
A small step in the right direction.
1 posted on 10/13/2011 5:10:26 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; nunya bidness; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; wku man; SLB; ...
Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!
2 posted on 10/13/2011 5:16:18 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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To: marktwain
I want to see the text of the Bill.

I'm betting that additional records will be added to background checks, additional disqualifiers will be added, a permanent database (like the one they are using and are not supposed to have) of gun owners will be established, and that the "private seller loophole" at gun shows will be "closed". Say good-bye to private transactions...

I smell the stench of "bi-partisan compromise" all over this bill.

3 posted on 10/13/2011 5:41:39 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.)
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To: marktwain
A small step in the right direction.

I'm not sure that streamlining an unconstitutional process (background check) IS a step in the right direction.

4 posted on 10/13/2011 5:42:28 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Joe Brower

I live and work in North Dakota but my drivers license is a South Dakota license. I wanted to buy a gun in Minot but I couldn’t because I wasn’t considered a resident.

This would end that restriction


5 posted on 10/13/2011 5:44:09 AM PDT by South Dakota (shut up and drill)
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I highly recommend a thorough and complete reading of the Bill. After all, we are dealing with a democRAT as well as Orin Hatch.

Hiding Second Amendment restrictive "GOTCHA"s within the Bill has not been a rare occurrence.

6 posted on 10/13/2011 5:45:58 AM PDT by pyx (Rule#1.The LEFT lies.Rule#2.See Rule#1. IF THE LEFT CONTROLS THE LANGUAGE, IT CONTROLS THE ARGUMENT.)
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To: Dead Corpse
I smell the stench of "bi-partisan compromise" all over this bill.

I smell it too. The odds of a "clean" bill are insignificant, and such a bill would likely be vetoed by Bam-Bam.

It WOULD be upsetting to DC, which currently bans firearms by the simple expedient of not having any licensed FFLs in DC. The residents of DC deserve their own bill, which simply says that residents of DC are allowed to buy in neighboring states.

7 posted on 10/13/2011 5:48:03 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (When you've only heard lies your entire life, the truth sounds insane.)
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The TEXT of H.R. 58 Jan 5, 2011 Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act can be found at THIS GOVTRACK.US URL.

There seems to be a significant DATE difference.

8 posted on 10/13/2011 5:58:45 AM PDT by pyx (Rule#1.The LEFT lies.Rule#2.See Rule#1. IF THE LEFT CONTROLS THE LANGUAGE, IT CONTROLS THE ARGUMENT.)
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To: pyx
The TEXT of a RELATED BILL: S. 35: January 25, 2011 Gun Show Background Check Act of 2011 can be found at THIS GOVTRACK.US URL.

There is ALSO TEXT of a RELATED BILL: Text of S. 34: January 25, 2011 Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2011 at THIS GOVTRACK.US URL.

There is ALSO TEXT of a RELATED BILL: TEXT of S. 835: April 14, 2011 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2011 at THIS GOVTRACK.US URL.

I highly recommend a thorough and complete reading of these SENATE Bills as well.

9 posted on 10/13/2011 6:10:26 AM PDT by pyx (Rule#1.The LEFT lies.Rule#2.See Rule#1. IF THE LEFT CONTROLS THE LANGUAGE, IT CONTROLS THE ARGUMENT.)
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To: pyx

bookmark for later, and thanks for the links


10 posted on 10/13/2011 7:02:53 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: from occupied ga
"I'm not sure that streamlining an unconstitutional process (background check) IS a step in the right direction."

Yes. This could be a Pandora's box providing the liberals, by means of amendments, a way to close the "Gunshow Loophole" which would fulfill their long desire to outlaw the transfer of firearms between individual citizens or even family members.

11 posted on 10/13/2011 7:46:59 AM PDT by Buffalo Head (Illigitimi non carborundum)
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To: marktwain

Alas, the bill will have no effect on Marxachusetts, where a series of corrupt Attorneys General took an end run around the law by imposing so-called “safety regulations,” which have effectively prohibited essentially ALL interstate commerce in firearms for better than ten years.

A state’s attorney general single-handedly voiding both the law and the constitution - the irony, at least, is delicious, while the level of bare-faced corruption is Olympian.


12 posted on 10/13/2011 9:45:08 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: marktwain

I love it, but 0bama will never sign it.


13 posted on 10/13/2011 12:06:30 PM PDT by backwoods-engineer (Any politician who holds that the state accords rights is an oathbreaker and an "enemy... domestic.")
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To: backwoods-engineer

Does this mean that NJ residents can purchase handguns out of state, without having to be burdened by the ridiculous one gun a month program, enacted by that waste of space, Jon Corzine?


14 posted on 10/13/2011 1:30:59 PM PDT by Seamus Mc Gillicuddy (Say Nope To The Hope Dope in '12!!!!!)
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To: South Dakota
Yes, but what ELSE would it do? That is the part that worries tin-foilers like me.

It'd be funny if we hadn't gotten burned EXACTLY like this before.

15 posted on 10/14/2011 5:45:41 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.)
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