My weapon is an extension of me.....
Posted on 07/13/2011 4:03:27 PM PDT by RummyChick
House Republicans on Wednesday voted to strip funding for a new Obama administration policy that increases reporting requirements for some gun dealers who sell semi-automatic rifles.
The rule from the Department of Justice (DOJ) requires dealers to report within five days multiple sales to the same person of semi-automatic rifles with removable magazines.
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) sponsored the amendment to the fiscal year 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies appropriations bill that would nix funding for the rule.
"For more than a decade, efforts to track rifle purchases and create a national gun registry have failed to gain support in Congress, so the ATF is working to implement these regulations using rules written by unelected bureaucrats," Rehberg said. "I’m going to keep this government accountable to the people."
Democrats vehemently opposed Rehberg’s measure, which was supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said stripping the funding from the rule would be akin to “virtual wholesale slaughter.”
“The NRA is so afraid that the people who are really funding the NRA, the gun manufacturers, might lose some sales that we’re willing to sacrifice the lives of these people that are casualties of this gun war,” said Moran during the markup.
“And we’re promoting it. We’re enabling … that slaughter to continue,” Moran said.
The new reporting requirement focuses on gun dealers in Southwest states with close proximity to the Mexico border. It comes amid an ongoing push by the Obama administration to strengthen security in the border region.
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The issue has received increased attention recently because of a congressional investigation into a controversial gun-tracking operation established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Operation Fast and Furious authorized the sale of thousands of weapons in the border region to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels.
Rehberg’s amendment passed, with 25 members voting for it and 16 voting against. The measure garnered support from retiring Democratic Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.), who partnered with him earlier this year to successfully amend H.R. 1 with nearly identical language blocking funds for the heightened reporting requirements from the fiscal year 2011 continuing appropriations bill.
That bill later died in the Senate, and Democrats stripped the reporting requirement provision from a subsequent measure.
The requirement focuses on dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF estimated the rules would affect about 8,500 gun dealers in the area.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a leading gun-control group, said the ATF’s rifle rule would not put many, if any, new burdens on gun shops. The group’s acting president, Dennis Henigan, pointed to the nearly identical reporting requirement that has existed for more than 40 years requiring gun dealers to report multiple sales of handguns by the same person within a 5-day period.
“It is a modest burden for gun dealers to have them fill out this form, but it is an enormous help for law enforcement to be able to identify as quickly as possible purchasers who are walking away from gun shops with 5, 10, or 20 of these assault rifles,” said Henigan in an interview after the vote.
Citing the severity of the Mexican gun violence, the ATF in December asked the White House to fast-track the new reporting requirement, which the administration promptly declined.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said earlier this week that the requirement was aimed at curbing sales of high-powered guns to traffickers for drug cartels, not average citizens attempting to arm themselves for sport or protection.
“This new reporting measure … will improve the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations,” he said in a statement.
Rehberg’s amendment was one of many offered during Wednesday’s markup that pushed a heated gun rights debate to the forefront of the committee’s agenda, as Republicans soundly defeated a Democratic attempt to limit gun purchases by suspected terrorists, and succeeded in inserting language to allow imports of more powerful types of shotguns.
My weapon is an extension of me.....
here is some info on the selling of guns to Honduras
as Sipsey Street points out:
“Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced yesterday [Monday].”
Townhall has obtained the email which states “Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations.”
Get that, they were creating through the Gunwalker Scandal the “evidence” to achieve the political inroads on the Second Amendment that they wanted. And wasn’t that the whole point of Gunwalker? “
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/operation-fast-and-furious-designed-to.html
Hot d*mn, Rehberg’s the man.
Moran the moron.
Holy smoking gun, Batman!!
Congrats to the Pubbies for showing that their spines aren’t always the consistency of overcooked spaghetti. Now let’s see a special prosecutor to investigate the corrupt Dept. of Justice.
This is not going to slow Texans down a bit, I don’t know about the other border states.
The Gun Running by ATF and its linkage to the fascist executive order has proven one thing for sure. The US government is NOW the enemy of the people.It creates gun running, which kills Americans, and then they use the fiasco to violate the 2nd amendment?
Payback is coming.
The silence is just deafening. We are saturated with this stuff. It’s overflowing the dam, and still the dam does not break! Had this been ANY other president, he would be ceausescued by now.
“The NRA is so afraid that the people who are really funding the NRA, the gun manufacturers, might lose some sales that we’re willing to sacrifice the lives of these people that are casualties of this gun war,” said Moran during the markup.
Rep. Jim Moran (Douchebag, VA) should shut his pie hole before someone from a Mexican drug cartel sticks an American-made, American-financed and BATFE-delivered M16 in it. After all, if there are too many reporting requirements, the Zetas, et al, will be getting fewer free guns.
““And we’re promoting it. We’re enabling … that slaughter to continue,” Moran said”
You Democrats stop walking weapons to the Cartels!
Oh, excuse me for the error. Should read: "Rep. Jim Moron (Douchebag, VA)...."
I hope David and Mike are watching their backs. I mean it. These guys deserve medals.
“The NRA is so afraid that the people who are really funding the NRA, the gun manufacturers, might lose some sales that we’re willing to sacrifice the lives of these people that are casualties of this gun war,” said Moran during the markup.Trying to make this into a Little People vs. Big Evil Corporation issue.
Laughable.
“’The NRA is so afraid that the people who are really funding the NRA, the gun manufacturers, might lose some sales that we’re willing to sacrifice the lives of these people that are casualties of this gun war,’ said Moran during the markup.”
This must be the height of something. I just don’t know what. This is the guy who slaps around eight year old black kids at airports.
It takes some real courage to do what they did and continue to do. They are taking on the worst of the worst - from Drug Cartels to the Highest in Power.
Mike did make a post about how it was taking the FBI a long time to get his mail to him after July 4th. I think the reference was meaning that the Feds were opening his mail before they let it get to him.
Republicans should be blocking funding for several hundred “things”...NOW!...
Paul Ryan just scratched the surface of funding cuts..
If it were up to me I’d be so Constitutionalist people here would shit their pants; nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of funding for an Air Force, it would be cut. As would DOE, the other DOE, DEA, Ag Dept, FDA, FCC, IRS (though I’d have to re-read the 16th Amendment), ATF, and so forth.
If we don’t take some “painful” cuts now, it will be nothing compared to when things blow up.
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