Posted on 12/02/2017 9:33:39 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
If you were the GOP congressional leadership and WANTED to lose both the House and the Senate in 2018, how would you do it?
I would suggest that there is no better way than to turn the GOP into the party that "finally delivered gun control." And this is after an eight-year stalemate under Barack Obama, when the anti-gun movement suffered one demoralizing defeat after another.
Not anymore.
Senator John Cornyn, the Senate's number two Republican, is doing the "happy dance" with his new friends and cosponsors Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal, and Chris Murphy -- over their new bill which could impose gun bans on millions of Americans.
You remember Chris Murphy? He was the guy who said that God didn't listen to the prayers of gun owners -- except for their prayers for forgiveness for not doing more to ban guns.
And the 51-49 final passage vote on the tax bill reiterates that Schumer and his Democrats are committed to destroying every single element of the Republican agenda.
So, why is Cornyn trying to "hot line" a major victory for Schumer -- a victory which would resurrect the anti-gun movement -- a key component of the Democratic electoral coalition?
The Cornyn-Schumer-Feinstein-Blumenthal-Murphy bill is S. 2135. And what it would do is push hard to make sure that the agencies and states submit every conceivable eligible name the the FBI's list of persons banned from owning guns, called the NICS list.
"Enforce the law" has been a mantra for squish Republicans. So, you may ask, what's wrong with making sure every single eligible name reaches NICS?
The answer is that the "dirty little secret" of NICS is that the prohibited persons law (18 U.S.C. 922(g)) and its interpretation under a 2007 law and its regulations are so perverse that, if actually enforced to the letter, they would ban guns from millions of additional law-abiding Americans.
Granted, there are a few really bad people who are not on NICS. That will always be the case. And, if NICS ever actually stopped a bad guy from getting a gun, maybe this wouldn't be so irrelevant. But you don't use a nuclear bomb to kill a mosquito.
Take recipients of federal entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, ObamaCare, etc. Under the federal regulations implementing the 2007 law, at 27 CFR 478.11, you are banned from owning a gun if a "lawful authority" (i.e., a government "shrink") determines that you are "a danger to [your]self or to others; or ... [lack] the mental capacity to ... manage [your] own affairs..." Under this language, over 257,000 law-abiding veterans have lost their guns, because a VA psychiatrist diagnosed them with PTSD and therefore appointed a guardian to manage their checkbook.
Barack Obama, legally, extended this principle, and implemented regulations to troll SSI disability rolls for people with guardians and, potentially, people with PTSD, ADHD, Alzheimer's, postpartum depression, OCD, and so forth.
Congress was horrified, and disapproved these regulations earlier this year. But when the next anti-gun president determines that the Cornyn-Schumer bill requires him to do the same with all other entitlement programs, there will not be a 2/3 majority in both Houses of Congress to overturn his veto.
My mother owned a gun until her death of Alzheimer's at 89. Many seniors have gun collections they never use -- but would like to pass on to their kids. No one has made the case that what we need is a massive across-the-board gun ban imposed on seniors -- and enforced by a California-style confiscation program.
If this doesn't bother you, how about 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(3)'s ban on marijuana smokers? Under Cornyn-Schumer, states would be required to turn over to the FBI medical marijuana lists, and lists of persons in diversion and medical treatment programs. Incidentally, the FBI still regards all of these people as federal felons.
Or what about the roughly 13% of all Brady Law denials occurring under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(2) -- a scary "fugitive" category which normally means that the person had an unpaid traffic ticket while on vacation? This is actually happening now, and is a major issue. Are we going to turn in the names of all "renegade parkers" who haven't paid their fines?
If your answer is "That would be stupid", well, guess what? Cornyn-Schumer is stupid. It is the sort of brainless solution which is concocted by politicians looking for a sound bite, who don't know what they're doing.
The good news is that there is still time to kill the Cornyn-Schumer bill -- and to saddle it with a "killer amendment," as the House seems prepared to do. If the congressional GOP has any desire to continue holding the reins of power, this is exactly what it will do.
Michael Hammond is the General Counsel of Gun Owners of America
Hell, I'd be shocked if it just passed the House, period.
I will crawl arm over arm over broken glass and rusty nails to vote against gun control.
As much as I like GOA, particularly after they stopped the Republicans for teaming up with Schumer and company after Sandy Hook (while the NRA was ready to ‘cut a deal’), they really should propose something constructive here, as there are people who should be on the no-buy list, but are not, and no one is held accountable when they are not.
And.... drumroll for a next fortuitous attack before this vote. Nothing like the blood shed of a veteran who has a prosthesis requiring him a bumpstock to be overwhelmed by the bloodshed of a terrorist in Vegas as a rhetorical lesson...
No buy lists are unconstitutional. The minute you are forced to sue the government for a mistaken list instead of the government forces to build a case in each instance, is when you have tyranny and presumption of guilt.
What is worse is that when an individual like the Orlando shooter happens to have a security clearance and a citizen is forces to sue the government to do its job of putting such obvious terrorist on a list, the government will not seek to take this guy on a list because in their eye the NICS checks is proof they have done their job as Congress asked them
The NiCS and no buy lists are scams. They do not stop
terrorists who have the blessings of the state
Eh, well NO!! Any other stupid questions?
Proper funding to enforce the laws already existing should be categorized alongside social security and medicare as an untouchable mandate in annual budget considerations.
The irony is Cornyn co-sponsored the national reciprocity bill for CCW holders. Talk about talking out of both sides of his mouth! Sheesh!
The more I learn of this Cornyn character; the more I know he has to go. He has no values or morals. He just goes where the wind shift takes him.
Another poster child for term limits.
I still think there needs to be a list of people prohibited from buying firearms - but at the same time, those who are falsely on the list need to be compensated for their effort at clearing their name. And if they were put there for political reasons (similar to IRS targeting of conservative groups), then the people putting them on the list also need to be held criminally accountable.
This bill will die in committee.
How about a bill requiring everyone over 21, who can pass a background check be required to buy a gun? And have the IRS tax them if they cannot show proof of gun ownership; if the Dems liked mandatory taxing for obamaNOcare, then they should support this. (semi-sarcasm)
On a mostly party-line vote, the measure easily passed, 231-198, although 14 Republicans voted no. Six Democrats voted for the so-called reciprocity measure, which would allow a gun owner with the proper permit in any state to carry a concealed firearm to another state where it is also legal.
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