Free Republic

On Wednesday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) took to the Senate floor and warned that universal background checks could lead to a national registry system for guns. "Some of the proposals, like for example- universal background checks- would allow the federal government to surveil law-abiding citizens who exercise their Constitutional rights. One of the provisions we expect to see in the bill based on what we saw in the Judiciary Committee- on which I sit- would allow the Attorney General of the United States (Eric Holder) to promulgate regulations that could lead to a national registry system for guns. Something my...

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin(D-WV) have reached a deal on expanding background checks. Firearms purchases at guns shows, on the internet or “any circumstance involving paid advertising” would be subject to background checks but there would be important exemptions, such as temporary transfers and between close relatives. “Under the terms of the Manchin-Toomey deal all background checks would be conducted by federally licensed gun firearm dealers, who would need to verify the validity of a purchaser’s gun license and record that a check was performed. Background checks would need to be completed within three days, except at gun...

Watch Live Coverage of Congressional Debate on gun control/background checks

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that he believes the Senate gun control bill deserves an up-or-down vote, breaking from a group of 13 Republicans — including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who have vowed to filibuster the bill. "We have not seen the final draft of the legislation that was produced, I understand, last night, but I think it deserves a vote up-or-down," Isakson told CBS News. --snip-- Isakson also said he could be open to expanding background checks if done in a way that protects free access to guns and mental health privacy. Later in the week,...

A bipartisan group of senators has struck a deal to expand gun background checks to all commercial sales — whether at gun shows, via the Internet or in any circumstance involving paid advertising, according to Senate aides familiar with the talks. The proposed agreement would be more stringent than current law, which requires checks only when purchases are made through a licensed dealer, but less than originally sought by President Obama and congressional Democrats, who were seeking to expand background checks to nearly every kind of sale. The agreement should secure enough bipartisan support for the Senate to proceed to...

Could the much trumpeted goal (by many on the Left and some on the Right) of universal background checks for gun sales be one step closer to being met? Apparently, according to the Washington Post, it is. The Post reports that a bipartisan group of unnamed US senators has struck a deal on the policy. Senators striking the deal include Joe Manchin (D-WV), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Patrick Toomey (R-PA). The deal in question certainly moves the ball on the issue. Current law only requires that background checks occur when purchases are made through a licensed...

The lamestream media told you: It's only reasonable, and studies show the overwhelming majority of Americans support universal background checks. We're not talking about registering guns. The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: How soon we forget. When the NICS computer was built and turned on by attorney general Janet Reno, in compliance with the Brady bill in 1994, she announced that the system not only would not erase records immediately after a gun-buyer background check as required by law, it could NOT erase records at all. She said it with a straight face, to Congress. The Justice Dept. under Bill...

Universal background checks for gun purchases are an attempt to address a legitimate problem: It really is easy for criminals to get guns, and it really is hard to prosecute those who sell guns to criminals. While licensed gun dealers are required to perform background checks and maintain records, private citizens may sell their guns without so much as asking a question. To prosecute a citizen for an illegal sale, the government must prove that the citizen knowingly gave a gun to a criminal or bought a gun for the sole purpose of transferring it to another party. In surveys,...

NRO’s Andrew Johnson notes that the NRA rushed to counter its own spokesman for the new school-safety initiative shortly after this aired yesterday on CNN, but Asa Hutchinson’s “support” for expanded background checks was, shall we say, nuanced. While Hutchinson did say he was “open” to expanded background checks, his idea for expanding them runs counter to the proposals circulating in Congress at the moment: (video link at source) (snip) Therefore, Hutchinson’s support for expanding background checks sounds more like support for the federal government to enforce the laws they already have on the books. We already know that federal...

As President Obama prepares to head to Colorado on Wednesday to push gun control legislation, some are calling into question the validity of a key statistic he’s using to tout his message on near-universal background checks. During several speeches, Obama has said 40 percent of all gun purchases were made without a background check.

On this Sunday's "Meet the Press," guest-host Chuck Todd was interviewing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) about the current status of the Senate's gun legislation, specifically what is being called the "Universal Background Check" which Democrats and their media counterparts favor as a "common-sense measure" in reaction to the Newton murders a few months ago. Forget the fact that a background check would have had absolutely no impact on Newtown, or Aurora, or Tucson, or Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or any other high-profile crime; progressives are bound and determined to use these massacres to slowly whittle away at Americans' constitutionally protected,...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., insists his universal background check measure will reduce crime without infringing on "your ability to borrow your Uncle Willie's hunting rifle or share a gun with your friend at a shooting range." But the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates paint a dark picture of expanding background checks to private purchases, insisting the move inevitably would lead to a national firearms registry. With a registry in place, they say, the stage would be set for the NRA's worst nightmare - gun confiscations. The background check proposal, part of a post-Newtown Senate package facing...

I have been curious regarding how little effort the gun-control crowd has been exerting to prove that mandatory background checks work. There are, after all, six states that require all-private party sales to go through a background check, and ten states that require it for all handgun purchases. If driven to advocate for mandatory checks, you would think the case studies of these sixteen states must have provided plenty of evidence that such laws reduce murder rates, and thus affected your decision. Right? I found this testimony to the U.S. Senate by Dr. Daniel Webster, a public health professor,...

Today was awesome. I had to be in Durham today, and just this morning I found out that the Durham Mayor, a (Illegal) Mayors Against Illegal Guns was holding a press conference to push for passage of Harry Reid’s anti-gun bill. There’s something really cool about seeing the faces of three Mayors when they realize that they’ve invited a question at a press conference from a political opponent. Harry Reid’s bill, S649 includes an almost carbon copy of Senator Shumer’s ”Fix Gun Checks Act.” That bill would have criminalized something I did last year. My wife wanted to learn to...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has emerged as a key player if Senate Democrats are to have any chance of passing legislation to expand background checks for private sales of firearms. McCain and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) are at the top of a list of Republicans considered most likely to sign on to legislation expanding background checks after talks with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) stalled earlier this month. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has signaled he will likely support the yet-to-be-finalized proposal he negotiated with Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks to...

Fox News is reporting that the leader of the Democrat-controlled Senate has dropped a proposed ban on modern semi-automatic rifles from the chamber's gun-control package – dealing a blow to supporters of the ban. Noting that the ban could still come up for a vote, the article stated that the sponsor of the measure, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA., revealed that Reid told her the proposed ban would not be in the initial package. Feinstein reportedly said she's "disappointed" with the decision, and is expected to nevertheless offer it as an amendment. From the article: ...The move by Reid to cut...

<p>Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, said today that reducing violence in the U.S. is a real problem.</p> <p>"They should actually do a real background check on everyone," said Boehner. His office later clarified that the congressman supports existing laws on background checks.</p>

Statement from Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director, regarding inaccurate NBC story alleging that NRA won’t oppose background check billAn article appearing today on NBCNews.com is falsely reporting that NRA will not oppose legislation being negotiated in the U.S. Senate that would mandate background checks for all gun purchasers. The story posted on NBCNews.com alleges that NRA will not oppose expanding the background check system to include all private firearm sales, "provided the legislation does not require private gun sellers to maintain records of the checks". This statement is completely untrue. The NRA opposes criminalizing private firearms transfers between law-abiding...

Will trampling the rights of law-abiding gun owners really do anything to help keep our children safe? Will piling unnecessary weight on a federal regulatory system that’s already drowning help keep guns out of the wrong hands? The answers, of course, are “no” — which is why a so-called “universal background check” system should be dismissed by any lawmaker who is serious about protecting constitutional freedom and improving public safety. A mandate for truly “universal” background checks would put the federal government squarely in the middle of every sale, loan or gift of a firearm between private individuals. In other...

Sunday’s Seattle Times has an analysis on the failure of House Bill 1588 — the controversial “universal background check” measure — that gun owners have quickly seen is lacking some key perspectives. The piece, written by Danny Westneat, looks at the switched vote of Walla Walla Rep. Maureen Walsh, a Republican who initially supported the measure. Westneat’s take is that she changed her vote because of pressure from the National Rifle Association, and that it is this sort of effort by the gun lobby that will prevent doing “anything about guns.” According to Westneat, background checks work. He writes: “Last...