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On Thursday, at a breakfast gathering sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) agreed that Congress is not done with gun control, that there is a good possibility that legislation calling for tougher gun laws comes up for another vote in 2013. This announcement, of course, comes a little over a week after the a bipartisan bill that would have expanded background checks to gun purchases made over the Internet and at gun shows failed to garner the 60 votes it need to overcome a Republican-led filibuster. “I think we’re going to bring...

After yesterday’s rejection of every single proposal relating to new gun laws, including those that would strengthen gun rights, the U.S. Senate did, in fact, agree on a couple of amendments this morning. The Senate voted in favor of the Barrasso amendment and the Harkin amendment, the last two left to vote on. The Barrasso amendment, proposed by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and endorsed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, would make it so federal funds would be withheld from any state or local government that releases private gun ownership data outside of criminal investigations, or info on victims of...

(snip) The amendment will require at least 60 votes to be added to the underlying gun bill. Based on analysis by The Washington Post, only 22 of the 100 Senate votes are in play: The 16 Republican senators who voted last week to proceed with debate and six moderate Democrats who face difficult reelections in 2014 or represent rural states with strong gun cultures and would face strong political pressure at home for supporting new gun-control legislation. ** The 16 Republicans who voted with Democrats to proceed: Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Tom...

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had opposed previous iterations of a Democratic proposal for univesal background checks. "It's huge," Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told Fox News on Sunday afternoon as he announced the CCRKBA endorsement.

An influential Gun Rights Advocate actually helped write the Background Check Bill coming up before the Senate this coming week. Alan Gottlieb, Executive Vice President of the Second Amendment Foundation, speaking candidly at a GOP gathering on Friday claimed that his staff had actually helped write the bill. He went on to describe how the Bill would be a step in the right direction for gun control advocates. "There's a Million other checks in there it's a Christmas Tree," bragged Gottlieb, "We just hung a Million Ornaments on it." "Unfortunately some of my colleagues haven't quite figured it out yet...

It has been almost 20 years since Congress has taken up the topic of gun control legislation. As the new debate over gun control heats up, senior Senate aides on both sides of the issue laid out advocates’ plan to get their bill through the Senate. The strategy advocated by gun control supporters in the Senate was described to BuzzFeed by two senior Republican Senate aides working to oppose the effort, and confirmed by a Democratic Senate leadership aide working to get it passed. Prospects for the gun control legislation weren't looking good until the recent Toomey/Manchin proposal. The legislation...

Here is the whole, long AWB including Manchin-Toomey amendments, the "compromise", which is on pages 2613-2618, toward the end. thomas.loc.gov has a "search link" which will expire so I posted the whole thing.   TEXT OF AMENDMENTS -- (Senate - April 11, 2013) [Page: S2598] ---        SA 711. Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. FRANKEN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. HARKIN, Mr. ROCKEFELLER, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. REED, Mr. CARPER, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. CARDIN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. MURPHY, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. WARREN, and Mr. COWAN) submitted an...

Let's all watch C-Span 2 and see exactly how many traitors are in the Senate ! http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/

Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin announced a gun bill compromise to expand background checks earlier today. The legislation is in direct response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. "This amendment won't ease the pain ... but nobody here, not one of us in this great capital of ours in good conscious could sit by and not try to prevent a day like that from happening again," Manchin told the press at today’s announcement. But aides on Capitol Hill admit that there is not a thing in the bill that would have prevented the killer,...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Can you imagine what a tough uphill struggle the anti-gun-rights people would have if the “news” media wasn’t falling all over itself to support the anti-rights side? Connecticut just drafted 138 pages of gun law basically in secret, enacted it before it could be read and digested by those who signed it – and certainly not by the public it pretends to legitimately control -- and in doing so ended up requiring federally licensed agents in the state to violate federal law, or flatly deny citizens their rights. Just on practical grounds this is a disaster. But...

More than half of Colorado's elected sheriffs are planning to mount a legal challenge to the state's sweeping new gun restrictions. The Denver Post reports that 37 of the state's 62 sheriffs will sue to overturn laws passed in March that set limits on ammunition magazines and expand background checks for firearms. Weld County Sheriff John Cooke told the paper that the proposed lawsuit would argue the laws violate Second Amendment rights. He said the lawsuit would likely be filed within the next few weeks. The group County Sheriffs of Colorado has opposed a ban on high-capacity magazines, and about...

Several Senate Republicans on Tuesday came out publicly against filibustering the first major gun control legislation since 1993 before it is even brought up for debate on the Senate floor, as advocates inched toward breaking a conservative blockade of the measure. ,,,,,,,,,,,,, Ms. Collins said she had spoken several times with Mr. Manchin and was pleased that the new language would exempt from background checks the sale or exchange of guns between family members. Under the measure, records of gun sales would be kept, but Ms. Collins said she was satisfied that those records could in no way be compiled...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has given Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) until 5 p.m. Tuesday to reach a background checks deal with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), according to several sources close to the issue. If there’s no agreement by that deadline, Reid will move to start debate over a gun-control package that is a wish list for gun-control advocates. But Republicans have already threatened to filibuster the bill, and it is unlikely to pass in its current form. If there is no deal and a filibuster is surmounted, votes could start as early as Thursday.

Can you imagine what a tough uphill struggle the anti-gun-rights people would have if the “news” media wasn’t falling all over itself to support the anti-rights side? Connecticut just drafted 138 pages of gun law basically in secret, enacted it before it could be read and digested by those who signed it — and certainly not by the public it pretends to legitimately control — and in doing so ended up requiring federally licensed agents in the state to violate federal law, or flatly deny citizens their rights. Just on practical grounds this is a disaster. But that’s as if...

For venal politicians on the front lines of the movement to subvert the Second Amendment, it’s a cunningly effective strategy: if they can’t ban it, they’re going to tax it. By adding a ‘sin tax’ to gun and ammo purchases they make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. It’s just a principle of economics. Participation drops the more expensive a hobby or a recreational activity becomes, even on an incremental scale. Of course, as mentioned, we’re not just talking about a hobby or an activity or even a bad habit. We’re...

Public-opinion polls about “universal background checks” for gun sales show widespread support. While President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg talk about “gun sales,” the actual legislation moving through Congress aims to regulate far more than sales. It would turn almost every gun owner into a felon. The trick is that the language under consideration applies not only to sales but also to “transfers,” which are defined to include innocent activities such as letting your spouse borrow your gun for a few hours. Consider, for example, Senate bill S.649, which the Senate will soon take up for debate. The background-check portion of...

Tonight (4/5/2013) clever MSNBC Maddow was playing clips of NRA Wayne Wayne LaPierre responding to the question: ‘What is wrong with these different proposed gun laws like background checks and magazine sizes?’ (clip of Megan Kelly question ) with ‘Because criminals won’t follow them only law abiding citizens will’(LaPierre response) .Now I could easily come up with arguments pros/cons of using that as a general guideline for rejecting laws. But then Maddow throws in her punch line : ”No one else but the NRA uses that argument against laws to be passed, that we shouldn’t pass laws that won’t be...

In response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, lawmakers in Indiana are looking to pass a bill that would require at least one teacher, principal or staff member to carry a firearm in every school in the state. Proponents of Senate Bill 1 argue that having armed personnel in schools would help to keep students and teachers safe, providing both a deterrent and a line of defense against a deranged gunman — an approach to school security that is fully endorsed by the National Rifle Association’s National School Shield Program. “I’ve been approached by...

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...

Despite a major push from the White House, more states have cut back on gun regulations rather than pass gun-control reforms in the wake of the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.