Posted on 04/10/2013 11:41:31 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
FAIRBANKSDemocratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said Wednesday he may vote to sustain a threatened Republican-led filibuster on gun legislation when the matter comes to a vote Thursday as expected.
The decision would put Begich at odds with President Obama, a fellow Democrat who used his state of the union address in February to urge Congress to allow up-or-down votes on gun legislation in the aftermath of the December shooting massacre of students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
I think people should have the opportunity to vote if they know what theyre voting on, Begich said in an interview with the News-Miner. I might be one of those that at the end of the day that doesnt vote for cloture, because anyone can talk about amendments, but we havent seen one of them yet.
Cloture is the term used for a vote to end debate on a measure and thereby allow a measure to proceed to a vote.
Several Republican senators have threatened to filibuster gun control legislation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. That could be modified with a bipartisan proposal announced Wednesday by Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia to greatly expanded background checks for gun sales.
Begich appeared skeptical, saying his two Senate colleagues had only held a news conference. Theres no bill, no amendment, he said. Ive seen this played before. Until I see it in detail Im waiting to see what that looks like.
Separately, Begich said Obama called him on Tuesday and that the two spoke for about 25 minutes, though not entirely about gun control. Obama has increasingly been pressuring senators to approve strong gun control measures.
Obviously this was what he was calling about, Begich said. We had a robust discussion and I reminded him of the current law and asked why are we not enforcing that. Begich, in his interview with the News-Miner, noted that anyone selling a gun at a gun show is required to have a license from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Why is that important? Because if you have an ATF license, you must by law have a background check.
Begich said he explained the ATF license requirement, and its related background check, to Obama. I said Mr. President, you could go in gun shows these people who are selling guns without licenses are doing it illegally.
Begich said Obama responded by citing difficulty from the National Rifle Association and lack of resources in the ATF agency. I said if they are under-resourced, then as an appropriator, I can put money on the table. Begich is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
I also said that if we are going to put some law forward and five years from now we havent resourced it properly, were selling a bill of goods to the Sandy Hook family and its unfair to the gun community, he said. Begich said existing law causes him to question even the purpose of the Manchin-Toomey proposal.
Begich also said he had a second meeting of about 30 minutes with family members of some of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. He said he had a first meeting with family members about a month ago.
There was a lot of concern about how do we move forward, he said. They didnt come in saying vote for this, vote for that. It was How do we make the system better. It was very emotional.
Contact managing editor Rod Boyce at 459-7585. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMeditor.
I have been searching and searching to find more than the section by section outline of the compromise background check language. I wanted to read the exact language.
As I suspected, the exact language is still being written as the vote occurred.
As stated in the following article from this morning. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/national-gun-registry_n_3060625.html
"That language of the bill is still being crafted. But multiple Senate aides briefed The Huffington Post on that specific provision..."
Easier to pass it if we dont know whats in it.
Wait till immigration.
I know! Where is the due process? What happened to a court adjudicated finding with the right to counsel to contest the shrink's findings?
Amen to that! Shall not be infringed!!! We should be fighting for repeals not compromising on new laws.
The other tactic that comes to mind is not to push the registration component. Just require the background check.
Then set up stings. Most people making a private transaction won’t comply. They they get arrested for a felony and lose everything.
I didn’t like giving them my phone # but I sent him the text of my post.
The mystery language is now available:
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