Senators plan to revise, revive expansion of background checks for gun buyers

Washington Examiner ^ | 5/7/2013 | Susan Ferrechio

[markomalley]

Senators who support expanding criminal background checks for gun buyers said Tuesday that they intend to revive the legislation for a vote by this summer, though the measure won't be exactly the same as the one senators defeated a month ago.

The Senate last month fell four votes shy of approving landmark, bipartisan legislation authored by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would have widened background checks to include firearms bought at gun shows or over the internet.

"Whenever the support and the time is right we will do it," Manchin said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who sets the chamber's floor schedule, told The Washington Examiner a bill could be brought up "at a moment's notice" and very soon.

"When we have five [additional] votes, it's time to call it," Durbin said.

Advocates for expanded background checks believe they have a better chance of succeeding now because a number of senators who helped kill the measure last month saw their poll numbers take a sudden plunge. The checks have up to 90 percent of the public's support in some polls following the massacre of school children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December.

"The increasing fury back in the states is giving people a reason to think twice about this issue," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Tuesday.

Supporters need 60 votes to advance background checks in the Senate, which means they must get five lawmakers to reverse their votes. To do that, lawmakers said some provisions may need to be rewritten to meet concerns those lawmakers have, like exempting online gun purchases between friends.

"We can't bring back the bill as is," Murphy said. "There are plenty of ways in which you can change the background check piece of the bill to allay those concerns."

He said other changes could include excluding gun buyers in rural areas and adding a provision that addresses mental health aspects of gun violence. Those issues were a big concern to Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., two opponents who could reverse their votes.

Both Flake and Ayotte Tuesday denied reports that angry constituents are driving them to to reconsider their votes against the first background check measure.

Flake saw his approval rating plummet after he voted against the Toomey-Manchin measure in April.

"I voted against that for a reason and I'm not reconsidering my vote," Flake said Tuesday.

Flake said he opposed the definition of commercial sales in the original bill because he believed it was too broad and included, for example, sales on Craigslist.

"I doubt they could change it sufficiently [to win him over] because then they would lose votes on the Left," Flake said.

Ayotte, who was confronted about background check legislation by angry constituents at a recent town hall meeting, said she would consider new legislation if it's changed to meet her concerns.

"I support a bipartisan bill that would improve the background check system," Ayotte said. "I've supported and worked across the aisle on mental health issues, which is important, if we are going to address the underlying causes of violence. And increase resources for prosecution for these types of crimes."

[The Working Man]

Yep! As soon as they find out they have not been reelected is the right time.

[T-Bird45]

One of my OK Senators, Coburn, attempted to play ball with this crowd and got burned all the way around by constituents and the double-dealing crew of sponsors. I doubt there’s any way he’ll consider a vote change but I suppose it’s worth a letter to stiffen his spine.

[Jack Hammer]

Let’s face it - these goons won’t be happy until the Second Amendment is rescinded in all but name.

Their oath to uphold the constitution means nothing to them.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The poll includes people who would never vote for a moderate democrat or a republican anyway, it does not prove a loss of support for the senators who opposed this legislation.

[jsanders2001]

The background check is only a slick way of being able to deny someone they don’t want to own a gun. They would (given their past record) only continuously expand the criteria for ownership until only but a certain percentage would be able to own one. We all know how the Feds use incrementalism to achieve their end goals. It would also give them a way to tie yet another group of records into their databases for instant access - your medical records. They already figured out a slick way to get access to all of our financial information with Obamacare. The elites want to be able to know everything about you but not the other way around.

[CMailBag]

[Yosemitest]

We need to keep the heat on these back-stabbers.

In short, the GOP is full of VILE members who'll sell us out in a heartbeat!

Here are the ones that I know about.
What do we do when our side is full of TRAITORS?
I submit the following for proof.

"The Republican leadership did not allow the amendment to be considered. "
Here's the Republicans Leadership Internet Page.

Republican Leadership


John Boehner
Speaker of the House





Eric Cantor
Majority Leader





Kevin McCarthy
Majority Whip





Cathy McMorris Rodgers
House Republican Conference Chair





Greg Walden
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman





Lynn Jenkins
House Republican Conference Vice Chair





Virginia Foxx
House Republican Conference Secretary





James Lankford
Republican Policy Committee Chairman




Click on the links to tell them what you think!

Check out this link, "Senate Republicans Willfully and Knowingly Lie to Their Constituents (vote to fund Obamacare)".

The following Senators voted to pass the continuing resolution even though it still funds Obamacare.
• Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
  
  
• Sen. JohnBarrasso (R-WY)
  
  
• Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
  
  
• Sen. John N. Boozman (R-AR)
  
  
• Sen. Clarence Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
  
  
• Sen. Daniel R. Coats (R-IN)
  
  
• Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
  
  
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
  
  
• Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)
  
  
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
  
  
• Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
  
  
• Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND)
  
  
• Sen. John “Johnny” Isakson (R-GA)
  
  
• Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE)
  
  
• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
  
  
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
  
  
• Sen. Jefferson “Jeff” Sessions (R-AL)
  
  
• Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
  
  
• Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
  
  
• Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
  
  
If any one of those senators tells you they did not vote to fund Obamacare or, in fact, voted against funding Obamacare,
they are being mendacious.
They may have voted for Ted Cruz’s amendment,
but after it failed,
they still knowingly and willingly voted to fund Obamacare.
And now they are lying to their constituents who call them out on it.

Many of these same Senators are also supporting separate legislation to foist a massive tax increase on the American people.

And let's not forget Sen. John McCain, one of Conservatives worst enemies, saying 'I don't understand' GOP filibuster on guns.

Sen. John McCain

Thanks to Cyropaedia for this:

And the Gang of 8 will try to tell you that this is just one more reason we need to pass amnesty, -NOW.

[SoFloFreeper]

"Whenever the support and the time is right we will do it," Manchin said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who sets the chamber's floor schedule, told The Washington Examiner a bill could be brought up "at a moment's notice" and very soon.

Scum.

[Jack Hammer]

Abso-effing-lutely.

And when the so-called “background check” is used to deny firearms to everyone who belongs to the political party out of office and out of favor, it will have reached its apotheosis.

And then it’ll be used to compile the list for confiscations.

[tanknetter]

excluding gun buyers in rural areas

Violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protections clause, if I'm not mistaken ...

[1010RD]

Utter Astroturf.

[Yosemitest]

Let us review a part of a great speech.

... I don’t know what America will choose. But for me and my family, I choose to stand with courage. I choose to stand with selflessness. I chose to stand with God
with Malice toward none and charity to all.

That’s who we are.

Forget what the media says, I know that’s who we are.

Our freedom is under attack. Our liberty and way of life is being legislated out of existence. Our rights are being diminished by a ruling power…an elite class is growing out of control.

We are in a really a precarious position, America. We have a government that is run by radicals actively working against us.

And there are politicians in the Democratic and Republican Parties who don’t fully understand that you’re dealing with a different enemy who is playing for the entire world.

They aren’t just tinkering around the edges anymore.
They are going after America at her very core.

Because they know:
if you lose the 2nd Amendment
You lose the 1st, the 4th , the 5th, the 10,th the 14th, the 19th,
then all you’ll be left with is the 16th Amendment, the income tax one.

And maybe if you’re lucky…you might still have that one about quartering soldiers.

Charlton Heston already stood in 1976
He drew that line in the sand.
I will not give up my weapon.
I will not comply.
I will stand and fight.

But we must now define what it means to fight and it must allow us to remain true to who we are. Tonight begins a new chapter in the fight for liberty.

One that is about more than just our cold dead hands…it’s about the hearts of good people and the active minds of a free people, the actions of a righteous people.
It’s about who we are. As Americans, proud Americans with a cause greater than ourselves.

I believe it is time not to run from labels – instead embrace those things that will be the only life preserver of any value. Let us declare without shame:
Yes- I will cling to my God and my guns.

He is my rock, and they are central to our foundation.

In the coming days I will announce an effort with major partners who know the time of our day.
I hope the NRA will join me on this.

We must begin to teach the American people how to stand for civil rights, with the same vigor and discipline that was taught to Alveda King and those around her by her Uncle Martin. We must learn what it means to passively resist.

Let us resist in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
This is the underground railroad and the lunch counters, and Tiananmen Square.
Most God-fearing Americans have always associated things like ‘peace’ activists, sit-ins and resistance with pot smoking, naked hippies.
By doing so, we have dismissed their power and their roots.

Because the cultural icon of that decade was the naked hippie we missed the truth, which truly moved us forward.
That free love had nothing to do with freedom and worse, love love should not be confused with sex.

The true and powerful message of the 1960s was that God demands equal justice and equal rights for all of his children. That was the center of MLK movement. And so we must pick up that truth again.

We must not respond in kind by getting angry, by playing dirty,
by calling the Progressives names and striking out .
Because we know who they are, we chose not be like them.
Let’s not give them that satisfaction nor the media the story they’ve already written.
We are better than that.
We are the law abiding, god fearing members of the NRA.
We are Americans.
We will be clear, and we will stand, we will march if we have to, but we will not be moved.
Our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
We will follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ,
Frederick Douglass, Winston Churchill, Thomas Paine, Dietrich Bonheoffer,
Ben-Gurion, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Gandhi,
Thomas Jefferson, and MLK.

Hear me now: “We Shall Overcome!”

Let us not talk about cold dead hands, but rather the people who have a cause to use them.
It is not the gun, the knife or, as Cain discovered with Able, a rock
but the cold heart filled with error and darkness that must be corrected.

So we will use these hands and our warm hearts to lift up, learn, teach, help and heal.
We will work together side by side, white, black, Hispanic or native-American.
It doesn’t matter because we don’t see those divisions.

WE will work together as Americans not only to preserve our rights,
but the rights of our children to be safe,
our wives and daughters to not be held at knife or gunpoint by a rapist
and our most precious and vulnerable little ones to have the right to survive a simple walk down a city street
or, God forbid, survive a day of public education.

It is not our cold dead hands that will win this but as always when it comes to American victories,
it is our strong backs, our strong will, and the ability to adapt and learn and our warm hearts filled with love for all mankind that will compel us
to defend all men’s right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Churchill said, we shall not falter, we shall not fail.
I will tell you if America falls, the entire world falls into darkness, so I will add:
we cannot falter, we cannot fail.

We will not be the generations that historians look back to and question.
We will not be the generation which loses mankind’s freedom.

They will look back to us instead and with awe and inspiration
that in our darkest times with the greatest reason for doubt or fear,
we rose above it, pushed the darkness back, and held the torch of liberty high once again
for all men of the world to see and aspire to.

I am not moving.
Because I have the power of the ultimate truth:
Because I am on the side of nature’s law and nature’s god.

Jesus was a man of love, peace, and forgiveness.
But make no mistake He was also immovable.

The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
We will fight by strapping on the full armor of God.
We will stand firm
with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness,
the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the spirit.

We will fight your tactics of fear,
we will fight your darkness.
We will fight your lies
and we will counter them with love, peace, and equal justice ... for all mankind.

[redgolum]

They fear common people. They hate them. Their world is one where they are treated as princes, the smartest, best looking, guys in the room.

They can’t the thought of the peasants being armed.

[ThunderSleeps]

Would be gun grabbers are still throwing that 90 percent number around? I thought that had been totally debunked. How embarrassing for him to still be trying to use it...

[nhwingut]

Exactly. The key word is incrementalism. Once the background check is passed with basic criteria (criminal records), the libs then could then add whatever they feel like down the road, such as your medical records (you should not own a gun if you are taking prescription drugs for instance), financial records (are you going through bankruptcy, you could snap etc). Its a slippery slope.

This Manchin guy, of all people. Who would have tagged him as the Feds go to guy for gun grabbing? West Va must be proud.

[Jim Noble]

The increasing fury back in the states

Astroturf.

[LibLieSlayer]

And WE THE PEOPLE PLAN TO RETIRE ANY OF YOU THAT TRY!

LLS

[Venturer]

Toomey should be ridden out of Pa. on a rail.

[nhwingut]

By the way, there is no “fury” at town halls here in New Hampshire re: Ayotte’s vote. The ones screaming were well known leftwing agitators (astro turfers).