Posted on 03/08/2013 10:18:44 AM PST by neverdem
The bill, which has bipartisan support, would impose strict penalties on buyers and sellers involved in purchases of firearms for someone who can't legally buy one.
WASHINGTON The Senate will take up its first firearms measure since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, after the Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to combat gun trafficking.
The proposal, steered by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee chairman, would impose strict penalties for buying a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so, an act known as a straw purchase. The bill would also toughen punishment for selling a gun to a person prohibited from owning one.
"Law enforcement officials have consistently called for a firearms trafficking statute that can be effective to go after straw purchasers," Leahy said. "What we need to do now is to create better law enforcement tools."
The trafficking bill, one of four gun measures being debated by the committee, will now move to the Senate floor. It faces an easier path than background checks for all gun sales and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Those bills, which the committee is to consider next week along with a school safety measure, have so far failed to garner the bipartisan support needed to pass the Senate.
President Obama, who made gun control one of his top priorities after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, called the vote a "big step toward sensible gun safety reforms." He said the bill would "crack down on folks who buy guns only to turn around and funnel them to dangerous criminals."
The measure passed on an 11-7 vote; all 10 Democrats on the committee backed the bill, along with Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Shouldn’t these jackasses be working on a budget?
I wonder if these Senators are too stupid or in denial about straw purchases by the Feds. (Read: Fast and Furious) These criminals are totally out of touch with reality. They are called domestic enemies of the Constitution.
I thought straw purchases for guns was already illegal, I’ll be darned.
Let’s see. Before it was “bad” to buy a gun for someone you knew or should have known wasn’t allowed to buy one themself. Now with the new ruling it will be “really, really bad” if you do it. Yup, that’ll work. Except for the bangers in the back alleys selling them to whoever. What asshats.
Since when have straw purchases ever NOT been illegal? This sounds like back door registration. Do NOT comply!
A panel.
Donks and a RINO are cracking down.
And MAYBE a budget by April, months (years) late.
P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C
.
Yeah, but now it will be MORE illegal. Kind of like adding a “hate” charge to a murder charge. Much more serious. Dumbasses!
Haven’t read the bill, but I’m assuming “straw purchases” has been redefined to mean “any private transfer of a firearm”. Anybody know if that is correct? I’m assuming like all leftists, when they can’t get their way, they change the wording and try again.
“Under current law, prosecutors can charge straw purchasers with illegally making false statements on federal firearms sales forms, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison or up to $250,000 in fines.
“But law enforcement officials say the charge is often viewed as a paperwork violation, which hurts their ability to clamp down on such activity. The proposed bill would define straw purchases as a crime and raise the sentence to as much as 15 years imprisonment, or up to 25 years if it can be shown that the buyer had reason to believe the gun would be used in a violent crime. Federal law bars gun ownership for certain people, such as felons and those who have been involuntarily committed because of mental illness.”
You may be on the right track because they are pushing for all private sales to go thu a FFL dealer who would do the background check. I don’t know if a private seller can request a backgorund check on a prospective buyer.
`(1) to be given as a bona fide gift to a recipient who provided no service or tangible thing of value to acquire the firearm, unless the person knows or has reason to believe such recipient is prohibited by Federal, State, or local law from possessing, receiving, selling, shipping, transporting, transferring, or otherwise disposing of the firearm;
(bold is mine)
ATF could do ANYTHING with this. They could say that your girlfriend is providing you a "service" in exchange for the .357 you gave her.
Or maybe, late in the reconciliation process after the House passes this bill, the gift exclusion is stricken. We'd be well and truly screwed then, because Zero would sign it without the gift exclusion.
There are whole categories of law that this language violates. The Federal government has no jurisdiction over what commerce happens within a state, but they have gotten rulings (Wickard v. Filburn) that let them do it.
You watch: before long, private transfers will be verboten. This could be the vehicle to get it done.
Um, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to stop these without registering guns!
Not their purview.
Way back when I didn’t have an F.O.I.D. (Illinois residents will understand) I had a friend buy my two sons shot guns for Christmas. Was that a straw purchase? They still have those shot guns.
Side story:
The first time I took them out with the guns, they learned a hard lesson about skunks. Baby skunks might be cute but you can bet, Momma is somewhere close by.
BEWARE AMENDMENTS!
I go to Mexico and buy all my guns directly from the U.S. Government. They have a nice selection of grenades, RPGs and anti-aircraft guns too.
Indeed. When are they going to arrest the perpetrators of the gun-running into Mexico?
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