Free Republic

S. 374 represents a direct blow to Americans’ right to keep and bear arms without excessive government interference. The bill holds that any “transfer” of a firearm must be conducted via a middleman (in practice, a law-enforcement officer or the holder of a Federal Firearms License) and that a transferee is obliged to submit to a check under the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. There are good-faith arguments in favor of and against this provision. But Chuck Schumer has narrowed the definition of “transfer” so strictly as to make his proposition absurd. If, for example, a gun owner...

I pulled up S.374 - Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013 on Thomas, and I came up with a two-page shell of a bill that means nothing. To ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the national instant criminal background check system and require a background check for every firearm sale.Well, gosh! Who could have a problem with that, right? I mean, didn’t the panel of gun banners last night at the town hall tell us that these are just common-sense measures to prevent people who shouldn’t have guns from having...