Posted on 06/15/2009 6:22:59 PM PDT by Copernicus
By Patrick Sperry
McCarthy Bill Rammed Through The House
Sunday, 14 June 2009 00:00
Many Representatives didnt see that email until it was too late. Less than three hours later, the bill passed by a voice vote. The bill in question, H.R. 2640, is a massive expansion of the Brady Gun Control law, the subject of many previous alerts by Gun Owners of America.
Its passage in the House is a case study in backroom deal making, unholy alliances and deceit. A sausage factory in a third world country with no running water has nothing on todays U.S. Congress.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that a deal had been struck between the NRA leadership and Democrat leaders in the House. The headline read: Democrats, NRA Reach Deal on Background-Check Bill.
Red flags went up throughout the pro-gun community. Who was party to this deal, and how many of our rights were being used as bargaining chips?
The McCarthy bill, at the time, looked to be going nowhere. The general consensus among pro-gun Congressmen was that any gun bill offered by McCarthy was simply DOA.
The end result of the negotiations was that this small clique among the NRA leadership gave this bill the support it needed to pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at patricksperry.wordpress.com ...
Best regards to all,
Best regards,
Eagles up!
NRA ILA has nothing....DRUDGE...nothing...hope this is a hoax...
Me too. I hope it’s just a disinformation campaign by the anti-2nd Amendment fascists.
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=219&issue=018
“”The NICS Improvement Amendments Act (H.R. 2640) would require federal agencies to provide relevant records for use in NICS. It would also provide financial incentives to states to do the same, by rewarding states that provide records to NICS and penalizing those that refuse to do so over an extended period of time.
Some pro-gun groups have claimed that H.R. 2640 would prohibit thousands of people from owning guns. This is not true; these bills would only enforce current prohibitions. In fact, H.R. 2640 would allow some people now unfairly prohibited from owning guns to have their rights restored, and to have their names removed from the instant check system.
The following are the key provisions of H.R. 2640, introduced by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.), which passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote on June 13, 2007....””
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=246&issue=018
“”Clearing the Air on the Instant Check Bill (H.R. 2640)
On June 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The bill (H.R. 2640, the “NICS Improvement Amendments Act”) would create incentives for states to upgrade their records on criminals and others currently prohibited from buying guns.
While gun owners are often rightly skeptical about what they read in the press, far too many have fallen for the media line that this is a “gun control” bill that came about as a result of the horrific murders at Virginia Tech. From NRAs perspective, the history of the bill goes back farther—to the earliest days of the instant check system, after it replaced the five-day waiting period created by the original Brady Act. (NRA, of course, opposed the original Brady Bill and its waiting period, supported amendments to force a transition to the instant check system and opposed later bills to make the waiting period permanent.)
In the late 1990s, gun buyers often experienced ridiculous delays while NICS sorted through cases of mistaken identity or incomplete police records. Many purchasers were wrongly denied and forced to go through a cumbersome appeals process. At the same time, state officials testified before Congress about woefully incomplete records they provide to NICS—a problem confirmed in recent reports by the U.S. Department of Justice.
H.R. 2640, like similar bills introduced since 2002, was meant to address those problems. State and federal agencies would supply updated records and would also have to remove incorrect records or records that no longer apply—for instance, when a person has an old criminal conviction expunged by a state judge.
More accurate records would mean fewer wrongful delays and denials. More honest citizens would be able to exercise their right to arms, while potentially dangerous people could be screened out more effectively. Theres just no sound reason to let the system be as incomplete as its been for the past nine years.
At press time, this bill is scheduled for debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We dont know how that will turn out, but rest assured that as the bill moves through the legislative process, NRA will be on the lookout for any attempt to amend it into a gun control “wish list.” If that happens, we will withdraw our support and actively oppose its passage. In the meantime, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation about H.R. 2640 has circulated, especially in the clogged lanes of the Internets “information super highway.” The rest of this article will answer some of the questions NRA members have asked about this bill.
Does H.R. 2640 ban guns for anyone whos ever seen a psychiatrist or received any other mental health treatment?
Absolutely not. H.R. 2640 doesnt ban anyone from owning guns—it only makes records available on those who are already “prohibited persons.”
When it comes to mental health conditions, the only people who cant own a gun under federal law are those who have “been adjudicated as a mental defective or . . . been committed to any mental institution.” Regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) define those terms too broadly in some ways, but narrowly in others. H.R. 2640 refers to those definitions, but only to help agencies figure out what records to provide to NICS; it doesnt ban anyone new from buying or owning a gun.
Some critics of H.R. 2640 claim that BATFEs regulation would impose a gun ban based on any psychiatrists diagnosis that a person “[i]s a danger to himself or to others . . . or . . . [l]acks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs.” But thats not true, because basic legal definitions mean that an...””
This bill passed in 2007 and was signed into law 1 JAN 08 by George Bush. Why is this being brought up now?
Correction: Signed 08 JAN 08
1968 all over again - I wish the NRA would move to Red China.
Hell yes, this is old stuff, it bacame law Jan 8, 2008.
This is old. It became law Jan 8, 2008.
Too impatient.
throw them all out. I smell tea brewing....
'Cuz someone's in fund-raising mode?
Don't give that money to the big, ol' NRA. Give it to us!! It's mine, do you understand? Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!!
Darn right.
The SAF spends more time sniping at the NRA than they do the Brady Bunch.
Yet when it come time to help a local club on real issues facing them, the SAF is useless. The SAF will send you a few hundred fliers to put on peoples windshields, while the NRA is there with money, legal advice and support.
I have little use for them. They're basically a couple of guys with an email list.
Funny how so many gun control bills are passed that way.
Do you suppose it's so we can't properly select our targets?
I think you are probably confusing the Second Amendment Foundation with the Gunowners Of America(GOA). The SAF/CCRKBA often works with the NRA to put on conferences and such. In particular the yearly Gun Rights Policy Conference, which I attended in the mid 90s sometime, when it was in Dallas (actually Irving). That one had Tanya Metaska (then head of NRA-ILA) , Wayne La Pierre, then NRA President Marian Hammer, Neal Knox (at the time somewhat "estranged" from the NRA leadership), several prominent Pro 2nd Amendment lawyers, including David T. Hardy, the highly libertarian (and Science Fiction author) J. Neil Schulman and even GOA's Larry Pratt. Very interesting, and not without a few fireworks.
Oh, and one character, who introduced me to several of the above, actor/screenwriter Jim Bohan, aka El Lobo Azul on the old RKBA mail lists.
Good question.
divide and conquer
Wake Up America!!
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