Posted on 04/10/2013 4:37:40 PM PDT by forty_years
Urgent action required. It is urgent that every gun owner call their Senators today and demand that they oppose the "See a Shrink, Lose your Guns" sell-out bill that is being authored by Senators Pat Toomey (R) and Joe Manchin (D) - but which also has Chuck Schumer's fingerprints all over it. Call senators immediately at 202-224-3121 and click here to send pre-written or free-form emails to senators about the Toomey/Manchin "compromise" (scroll to bottom to send).
See a Shrink, Lose your Guns. The anti-gun "ranters" have spent the last week telling us that Republican Senators can't filibuster Harry Reid's gun control bill; that they can't cut off debate to a bill they haven't seen yet. "Let the bill come up," they say. "We need to see the bill" before Senators can vote against cloture to proceed to it.
Well, we've seen the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer sell-out, and it's worse than the Feinstein gun ban, which will reportedly be tied to it and offered simultaneously in a Senate procedure known as an "amendment tree."
Toomey and Manchin will claim that their bill only covers "gun show sales" and Internet sales. But if you've ever talked about your gun and /or let it be known you'd like to sell or buy a gun on the Internet, this language covers you. If you advertise your gun in the church bulletin and the bulletin is put on the Internet, you're covered.
The only exemption is for sales that are sold exclusively by word of mouth. The increased number of background checks would likely exacerbate the system breakdowns (inherent to NICS) which have shut down gun shows over and over again. It would mean that Americans who were illegally denied firearms because their names were similar to other people's would effectively be barred from owning a gun. (We would never tolerate such delays for voting rights or other freedoms that we are guaranteed.)
And for those Republicans who think they're going to be able to offer their useless amendments, guess what? Reid is reportedly going to use a procedure to block out all amendments (called an "amendment tree"). And there are plenty of Senators standing in line to make sure that the Senate doesn't give "unanimous consent" to let those Republicans offer their amendments.
So if you live in a rural area, you're effectively barred from selling or buying a gun - or it at least becomes very, very difficult.
Incidentally, the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer "national registry" language is full of holes. There will be a national gun registry as a result of this sell-out.
But that's not the worst part. Under an amendment in the bill to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), you could have your guns taken away because your private shrink thinks you're "dangerous" and could send your name directly to the FBI Instant Check system.
Did you think it was terrible that 150,000 military veterans had been added into the NICS system because they'd seen a VA shrink about their PTSD? Well guess what? Now it's going to happen to the rest of the population ... by the millions!
And the next step, of course, will be to begin to sue psychiatrists that don't send every single patient's name to the Instant Check system, and to make sure that their lives are ruined if they don't send a patient to NICS and anything goes wrong.
The bottom line: "See a shrink; lose your guns."
All of this will reportedly be on an amendment tree with the Feinstein gun ban and magazine bans.
Repeal of gun owner protections. In addition, Toomey no doubt unintentionally agreed to repeal one of the most important protections for gun owners that was included in the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Act - the provision that would allow you to take an unloaded, locked-up gun through states like New York without being stopped. Under a new subsection (c), the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer bill would require you to "demonstrate" to the satisfaction of New York police where you were coming from and where you are going to. And, if you don't do that to their satisfaction, they can arrest you.
Please keep in mind, nothing in this bill would have stopped Newtown dirtbag from killing his mother and taking the firearms that she owned and perpetrating the horrible crimes that he committed.
Nothing is this bill would actually make children safer at schools. There is nothing that will actually keep bad guys from stealing or illegally acquiring guns, but there's plenty that will threaten our gun rights!
ACTION: Contact your two senators immediately. Tell them the "see a shrink; lose your guns" sellout is even worse than the Feinstein gun ban which will reportedly be on the same amendment tree with it. Distribute this alert far and wide.
Time is short, so if you call - at 202-224-3121 - you may click below to see the pre-written letter and use the contents to help direct your comments.
Click here to send your Senators a prewritten email message (scroll to bottom to send).
BTTT
Senator Toomey, would your solution prevent Newtown from happening again? If it does not solve that problem then there is nothing to discuss. I anxiously await hearing how these ‘geniuses’ will keep a Newtown from happening again
In Michigan we have a problem Comrade Stabenow and Comrade Levin are our useless senators. They only listen to the big cities and screw the rural voters. They are already in goosestep with Odumb@$$’s Facist Plan.
PING...
I live in PA, the home state for Toomey. The other senator is Bob Casey, a dipchit Democrat. Calling or emailing is useless.
When is everyone going to figure out that the Republican Party has sold us out? We have no representation in Washington.
We need to mobilize the Tea Party!
It`s like these guys are begging that the base stays home and they get booted out of office .
What are in the minds of the GOP elite these days ?
Feeling politically suicidal, revealing their true innner totalitarian selves, being blackmailed, bribed ?
But Toomey’s actions prove that the politics of counting votes/emails/letters/faxes does matter. The only reason he jumped on this train was to appease mainly urban parts of PA for his next election. We beat all anti-gun legislation in NM in the 2013 session by bombarding the state house with emails and phone calls. Both the House and Senate in NM are controlled by Democrats, but they caved when faced with an overwhelming voter backlash of emails and calls, and it’s not even an election year. My eyes and ears in the capital told me that they were really shaken by the vociferous opposition to what they assumed would be a cake-walk.
That is a lie, what I am and have been for many years is very much against Arlen Specter, who as you know Santorum was devoted to and supported even in 2010.
Arlen Specter was also supported by, endorsed by, and campaigned for, by Santorum during Specter's 1996 Presidential run to make the GOP a pro-abortion party.
Toomey is trying to appeal to surburban women in the Philly suburbs. With Gov. Tom Corbett sinking approvals, Toomey is trying to distance himself from the governor with his unique brand of GOP. Toomey figures that conservatives will get over the gun bill when he’s up for re-election in 2016.
He knows he lost my vote if he doesn't work against his own bill. He also knows that I will work against him in the next primary.
I tried my best to write a respectful email. I did not use any profanity or threaten his life. That was the most restraint that I could find.
You guys should not be dragging threads around from one thread to another, basically stalking freepers and hijacking threads, and carrying grudges, but since you want to make this a Santorum thread, and since Naps came on so strong with post 5, even making up a lie about me being a lover of Toomey, a man who’s only interest to me was defeating Specter, here I am.
I just wrote a flaming email to Toomey.
Good for you. We wouldn't be where we are now, with politicians doing whatever they want, if people were engaged. We're lucky to get a 50% turnout at a national election. I lived in a town of 150,000 where a school levy was decided on 2500 votes.
The devil is in the details. I have contacted my Senators and a number of key Senators in other states over the past week, including Toomey, as to the problems I had with Chuck Schumers universal background check law.
Before I go screaming what the laws says, I would like to see it. Although I have to confess, that keeping it from view of voters is not a very good sign.
If anyone has a link to the real language (not the joint presentation outline of points), I would really appreciate it.
Unique brand of GOP? What’s so unique about betraying most of your constituents?
I for one won’t forgive him. He can spin it all he likes. Bottom line is that he has trashed the Constitution and pizzed away our rights and protections.
Toomey went liberal on gays in military. If a Republican doesn’t have the courage to stand for traditional values, he’s going to be weak on other issues.
That’s not the purpose of it. The purpose is to attempt to diminish the level of arms amongst the public BEFORE they crater the nation economically.
Bottom Line: The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act would require states and the federal government to send all necessary records on criminals and the violently mentally ill to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The bill extends the existing background check system to gun shows and online sales.
The bill explicitly bans the federal government from creating a national firearms registry, and imposes serious criminal penalties (a felony with up to 15 years in prison) on any person who misuses or illegally retains firearms records.
TITLE ONE: GETTING ALL THE NAMES OF PROHIBITED PURCHASERS INTO THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM
Summary of Title I: This section improves background checks for firearms by strengthening the instant check system.
- Encourage states to provide all their available records to NICS by restricting federal funds to states who do not comply.
- Allow dealers to voluntarily use the NICS database to run background checks on their prospective employees.
- Clarifies that submissions of mental health records into the NICS system are not prohibited by federal privacy laws (HIPAA).
- Provides a legal process for a veteran to contest his/her placement in NICS when there is no basis for barring the right to own a firearm.
TITLE TWO: REQUIRING BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR FIREARM SALES
Summary of Title II: This section of the bill requires background checks for sales at gun shows and online while securing certain aspects of 2nd Amendment rights for law abiding citizens.
- Closes the gun show and other loopholes while exempting temporary transfers and transfers between family members.
- Fixes interstate travel laws for sportsmen who transport their firearms across state lines in a responsible manner. The term "transport" includes staying in temporary lodging overnight, stopping for food, buying fuel, vehicle maintenance, and medical treatment.
- Protects sellers from lawsuits if the weapon cleared through the expanded background checks and is subsequently used in a crime. This is the same treatment gun dealers receive now.
- Allows dealers to complete transactions at gun shows that take place in a state for which they are not a resident.
- Requires that if a background check at a gun show does not result in a definitive response from NICS within 48 hours, the sale may proceed. After four years, when the NICS improvements are completed, the background check would clear in 24 hours. Current law is three business days.
- Requires the FBI to give priority to finalizing background checks at gun shows over checks at store front dealerships.
- Authorizes use of a state concealed carry permit instead of a background check when purchasing a firearm from a dealer.
- Permits interstate handgun sales from dealers.
- Allows active military to buy firearms in their home states.
- Family transfers and some private sales (friends, neighbors, other individuals) are exempt from background checks
TITLE THREE: NATIONAL COMMISSION ON MASS VIOLENCE
Summary of Title III: : This section of the bill creates a commission to study the causes of mass violence in the United States, looking at all aspects of the problem, including guns, school safety, mental health, and violent media or video games.
The Commission would consist of six experts appointed by the Senate Majority Leader and six experts appointed by the Speaker of the House. They would be required to submit an interim report in three months and a completed report in six months.
WHAT THE BILL WILL NOT DO
The bill will not take away anyone's guns.
The bill will not ban any type of firearm.
The bill will not ban or restrict the use of any kind of bullet or any size clip or magazine.
The bill will not create a national registry; in fact, it specifically makes it illegal to establish any such registry.
The bill will not, in any way at all, infringe upon the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
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