Posted on 03/07/2019 3:50:08 PM PST by markomalley
House Democrats just passed some of the most sweeping and sneaky anti-Second Amendment legislation in decades.
H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019, are two Trojan horse bills that seek to impose onerous restrictions on gun sales under the pretense of preventing dangerous criminals from obtaining firearms.
National gun registries, endless background screenings, and prohibitive wait times are what these bills are all about. They represent a concerted effort to discourage Americans from buying, selling, or owning a firearm.
While neither of these bills would do anything to stop gun violence, they would make it almost impossible for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment liberties freely by entangling them in a web of bureaucracy.
H.R. 8, which was the first bill passed by the House, would impose so-called “universal” background checks on gun sales and transfers, but that’s only a facade. What the legislation really aims to do is impose complex and burdensome restrictions on what law-abiding gun owners can do with their property.
While there are many dangerous ramifications to this bill, at its core, it would criminalize private sales and transfers that occur without direct government oversight and regulation. Virtually any sale of a firearm from one American to another would become illegal without first completing a background check, and even transfers of firearms between family members and friends would be subject to complex rules that could cause even diligent gun owners to inadvertently run afoul of the law.
Currently, private gun owners are not required to identify themselves to the federal government — an important protection against a national gun registry that H.R. 8 would severely weaken.
H.R. 8 is only step one of the Democrats elaborate plan, though. H.R. 1112 is even sneakier than its sister bill, making it possible for the government to prevent law-abiding citizens from purchasing a gun even if they pass a background check.
Current law allows the FBI three days to complete a background check on someone purchasing a firearm from a registered dealer, a provision designed to protect your Second Amendment right from bureaucratic slow-walking.
The new legislation would give the FBI up to 10 business days to conduct a background check, but would require the would-be purchaser to file a petition if the timeline is not met, at which point the FBI would have an additional 10 business days to act upon the petition. As Georgia Rep. Doug Collins pointed out on the House floor, however, this timeline can stretch beyond the window of 30 calendar days during which the original background check is valid, forcing the purchaser to start the whole process over again.
H.R. 1112 removes the incentive for FBI agents to complete background checks in a timely manner, threatening to put American gun buyers into a perpetual loop of wait lines that never end.
Given that 7,043,975 background checks were performed in 2018 — or nearly 20,000 per day — one can just imagine the backlog that would ensue if authorities had so much leeway to restrict sales.
We’ve already seen how bureaucrats can abuse such discretion for political purposes, such as when IRS employees targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status with unnecessary delays.
Keep in mind, neither H.R. 8 nor H.R. 1112 would have any effect on criminals looking to do wrong, because criminals don’t go to the FBI seeking permission before buying a gun. As the Obama administration noted in a 2013 memo, the overwhelming majority of criminals who acquire firearms do so either through straw purchasers or by stealing — both of which are already illegal.
Moreover, background checks aren’t even a reliable way of preventing deranged individuals from obtaining firearms, since they can’t predict a person’s future actions. Parkland, Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz, for instance, passed a background check that allowed him to buy the gun he used to massacre 17 people.
Fortunately, Senate Republicans are certain to reject both bills, and President Trump has already vowed to veto them if they somehow reach his desk.
Still, the Democrats’ sneaky effort to undermine the Second Amendment offers a chilling preview of the agenda they would advance if they ever get control of two branches of the federal government again.
Click It!
When a person can’t buy a gun except from a licensed dealer,
but the dealer can’t get
bank funding, checking account cashing by banks, credit card use for a sale because any gun dealer or NRA member is put on a list of people not allowed by the bank or credit company——
—then no one can buy a gun.
After he was elected, I had hopes that President Trump would form a civil rights defense team that would go through all federal, state and local laws and ordinances that infringed on our second amendment rights. Then put them up for judicial review to be removed as unconstitutional.
Dare to dream.
This big mouthed alligator will bite the ComDems in the posterior if they keep hammering it.
Stupid stupid stupid move.
We will not forget. There is no way they will win this one.
Hook or crook legislation if they got control would bring on carnage they have no concept of. They would receive most of it.
Can’t wait to see Trump JR. in front of the house commit (or comity), he is going to make mincemeat out of them.
JSSTB...
Or the proper written forms from the state that are required. Or the old Ca trick... “That form is no longer valid” and you have to order the new forms which take 6 months to get. Then they rinse and repeat again as soon as you get those new forms.
We should NEVER need government permission to exercise a constitutionally guaranteed right.
That’s all on us and it is us who us slacking on this. It is up to us to get off our butts and put this stuff back through the local system again for another try at fair constitutional federal rulings. All he can do is give us a better chance by appointing the local Fed judges we need to do this.
They have NO IDEA what “weight” to apply to the “don’t even think about it” side of the scale.
CA Congressman Mike Thompson (D) publicly admitted last week that the Democrats end goal is complete gun confiscation from the American citizens. Everyone knows they will first need to know who legally owns a firearm thus this BS bill that will morph in to registration. That is only their early phase of taking firearms from citizens. I’m sure I’m not alone but i have serious doubts that the democrats and the entrenched establishment pukes will never abandon their relentless effort until they are forced to do so or they succeed in achieving their goal.
Junior is really shining as an outspoken Conservative.
I’m really, really starting to like Donald Trump junior. He seems to have his daddy’s spirit.
Excellent point.
They went after his hunting lodge for hiring undocumenteds.
Thanks a lot GOP.
Been there as a dealer in Ca. They did that form scam on me four times in a row and I had customers waiting. They succeeded in putting me out of business so I quit collecting revenue for them altogether and moved out of Ca.
But that’s the game you mention, Obstruct and stall at every opportunity.
BTTT! That post is “Post of the Year” Material! Thank you!
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