Posted on 11/03/2003 1:20:30 PM PST by 45Auto
The “Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2003” is scheduled to be introduced tomorrow – Halloween, appropriately – by Sens. JohnMcCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.).
And, according to an email sent yesterday to certain Senators by Jim Kessler of “Americans for Gun Safety,” the pair will offer the bill as an amendment to S. 659, the gun industry liability protection bill, which could be on the Senate floor as early as next week.
About a week ago Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and the Republican leadership agreed that S. 659would be one of a few pieces of legislation brought to a vote in the closing weeks of the legislative year. Probably With 55 co-sponsors, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.Dak.), and up to 11 other Senators reportedly ready to vote to end a de facto filibuster of the bill, it's almost certain to become law.
Provided that it's not loaded down with anti-gun Senate amendments which can't be shaken off in the eventual conference committee or on the House floor (which passed the bill 285-140 April 9).
In addition to the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill, I expect to see Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)introduce an amendment reenacting the expiring ban on so-called “assault weapons” –making it permanent and broadening the high-capacity magazine restrictions.
A string of other amendments would be no surprise because the anti-gun crowd is desperately trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The biggest victory for our foes – and the biggest defeat for gun rights – would be reenactment of the Clinton Gun Ban, which Sen. Feinstein is determined to achieve.
If the ban on “assault weapons” is attached to S. 659 in the Senate, and can't be stopped in the House, NRA-ILA will kill the bill – I'm told, because “as important as industry protection is, it's not worth letting the ban continue.” Amen!
Although Kessler's email to Senators called the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill a “compromise,” it isn't. It's a softer-sounding version of the bill that McCain and Lieberman introduced in May, but with anti-gun Jack Reed (D-R.I.) replacing the better-known Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
The new bill was clearly polished with softer words by Andrew McKelvey's Americans For Gun Safety, which claims to support gun rights (but doesn't) and specializes in bill language that doesn't sound quite so threatening to gun ownership (but is).
As an example, the new bill refers only to “criminal background checks” being conducted on all sales at “Special Firearms Events”–not only gun shows but at “any event at which 75 or more firearms are offered or exhibited for sale.”
The operator of a “Special Firearms Event” must have a $200 license, notify the Attorney General 30days before the “event” of its time, date and duration, with a list of all “vendors” –including anyone walking around with a “For Sale” sign stuck in the muzzle of a shotgun.
If such a “vendor” arrives after the “event” starts, the operator would have to log him in, along with name and address copied from a photo i.d. Within five days after the “event,” a copy of the log would have to be shipped to the A.G.(read BATF).
All “vendors”–not just table-holders – would be required to perform what the bill calls a “Criminal Background Check,” but other parts of the bill make it clear that the National Instant Check System must review all disqualifying records. Saying “Criminal Background Checks” sounds much more reasonable than “Mental Treatment Records.”
So if the dealers on commercial row at Camp Perry, the Grand American or some small event had 75guns on display, two competitors swapping personal guns would be classified as “vendors” required to perform background checks – with the “event operator” liable for criminal penalties if they didn't.
Also, the licensed operator would be required to notify the BATF if any non-licensee purchased two or more handguns “during any five consecutive business days.” How could any gun show or shoot “operator” possibly know such a thing –particularly since four of the guns might have been purchased at retail stores elsewhere or other events?
Many other features of this bill are also designed to entrap gun show and shooting event sponsors with provisions so confusing and complex that no one could sell or trade a gun at a gathering without risking a prison sentence–which is the objective.
I'll tell you more about AGS very soon.
Schwarzenegger, who agreed in the meeting to work with Feinstein to win an extension of her ban on assault weapons, a matter fiercely opposed by the NRA and many Republicans, said he, too, had put election politics behind him.
"She's not going to come out and cut a commercial for me,'' Schwarzenegger said in response to a reporter's question. "I totally appreciate and understand that, and we will be working together like a jewel.''
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE!!!!!
What's up with this tacked-on amendment crap??? Now that we've got a sure thing to stop these frivolous lawsuits, the minority party is just going to tack their evil BS onto it??? This should not be possible.
I have a mailing from Neil Knox with slightly different wording in at least one area:
"I've been specifically told -- as recently as a week ago -- that if the ban on "assault weapons" is attached to the gun industry protection bill (which the Senate might do) NRA-ILA will kill the bill if it can't be cleaned up in the conference or on the House floor."
Call me paranoid, but the phrase "cleaned up" really bothers me. I am worried that if this bill doesn't get out of the Senate unpolluted by Senator "Treason" McPain's amendments, NRA will get sandbagged by the firearms industry - particularly if large contributions are offered - and accept some sort of infernal "compromise". The gun-grabbers would just love to to pit gun owners against the firearms industry on this - they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
And the gun manufacturers may cave, as Bill Ruger did years ago, if it's a question of our rights versus even so much as a perceived short-term respite from the ongoing assault by "progressive" lawyers. They are fooling themselves, of course, since the leftist courts will overrule the "single industry" provisions of S659 in a heartbeat - but businesses (gun manufacturers unfortunately not excepted) are notorious for foregoing long-term survival, much less principle, for perceived short-term gains.
The gun-grabbers are pulling out *all* the stops to see to it that this bill gets poisoned with Senator Treason's anti-gun amendments (click here for an example...)
The almost certain outcome if there is a "sell-out" by NRA and/or the Congressional RINOs, is that the "industry protection" portions of the bill will be overthrown by the leftist judiciary, while the bans and the strangling Federal controls will remain in effect.
The Congressional RINOs - and particularly those in the Senate, where the margins are close - will vote to attach Senator Treason's amendments, unless it is made abundantly clear to them that their pitiful little careers (and their equally pitiful little Senate majority) are at stake.
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. (Don't bother calling Bush; he's already signed on to the gun-grabbers' agenda.) Call your RINO senators, and any Demonrats (if there are any other than Zell Miller) who might actually believe in the Second Amendment). Tell them that you're going to sit out the 2004 election if they allow McPain and his gaggle of goblins to attach ANYTHING to S659.
The Congressional switchboard is at 202-224-3121.
The AW ban and gun show bans are my litmus test.
It could be that the RINOs and the Repubos in general are thinking that it won't matter if a few RKBA hot-heads get pissed off; that would be a mistake for them if the Bush/Gore election fiasco was any indication. True, the nation might go for Bush by a 60-40 split in the '04 election. Especially since the economy seems to be turning around, and the RATs are self-imploding with the field of nine-plus-one dwarfs. Still, a lot can go wrong in the next year.
But the "gun show loophole closure" provisions would be fine and dandy with the NRA? Jolly.
It's how they do what they want, and then attempt to deny blame for it, since they really only wanted the "good" provisions of the "must pass" legislation. Also it's often the way the play "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". We need a Constitutional amendment to stop the log rolling.
Absolutely Dan.
I hate and despise those ridiculous lawsuits which are raising the price of all new guns. But if the AW ban is renewed, and made even worse by Feinstein's proposed new restrictions, semiauto firearms of all kinds are next on the banned list.
Same with the so-called gunshow "loophole" bill. That bill is designed short term to end all gun shows, but it's also the first step toward criminalizing all private firearms transfers, even loans and gifts between family members. We can't allow them to get their noses under the tent with that bill.
..., but it's also the first step toward criminalizing all private firearms transfers,...
Exactly. It's de facto "infringement" by Fabian methods. Feinsteins strategy is to slowly, but surely, render the 2nd. Amend. meaningless, as is the situation in California. Feinstein wants our guns, and she wants ALL of them.
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