When it comes to the Background Check Bill, some of you might not like what Im gonna say, but I spent hours and hours, in Senator Manchin, with Senator Manchin and Pat Toomey going over whats in that Bill. And, Im a little upset with the one this whole debates gotten so polarized that its really hard for anybody to be intellectually honest about what any of the Bills say. [unintelligible] Ill be candid, unfortunately with the background check thats really what the case is right now.
The initial background check bill that Schumer put in was horrible. Theres no way that any of us could support it. It was gun registrations, theres no two ways about it, The Manchin-Toomey Bill despite some of my colleagues in the Gun Rights Movement talking about that its registration, it is not registration. Ahhh .. To be perfectly candid about it, it states in it that no guns can be registered. It also carries a section in it that any federal or any state or any gun dealer with access to the NICS Check Records who misuses those records for registration purposes commits a felony with a 15 year up to a 15 year prison term. Thats really great protection for us.
Right Now? Any gun sold through a dealer that goes through a background check: there is no protection. If someone were to misuse that list nothing happens to them. Now they will serve 15 years up to 15 years in prison for misusing that list, if in fact they do so. Thats great protection. Its the first time weve had protection. Other things in that bill which my sides not talking about? Were not taling about it for a reason.
If we talk about it too much, the other sies gonna find out about it and theyre gonna realize were gonna win off of this thing. The back ground check is not even a Universal Background Check. Its at gun shows, commercial venues, or the internet. And, to be candid about it, it doesnt cover family members, of any kind, or any friends, or any gun transaction, thats not done at a gun show or basically on the internet. It gives protection, if you do go through the background check, you as an individual will now get both civil and criminal liability protection that you dont have now. If somebody sold a gun to somebody whos misused it, nobody can sue you even in a civil court for damages. Thats great protection that you dont have right now.
Theres about 10 other important things in there. One of them them that some of you have read in the newspapers that a lot of Veterans are being disarmed so to speak once they come back from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of a sudden because they were out processed and had stress problems the VA now puts their name into the NICS system they cant own a gun, this new bill, this Background Check Bill has a provision in it to eradicate that. Their Rights will be restored.
It goes on and on. Traveling across the country. It gives you more protection so that you can take your gun from state to state than you have now.
Another important one, you cannot now legally buy a handgun in a state that you dont live in. If youre not a resident of the state you cant buy a handgun. Under the so-call Background CHeck Bill, youll be able to buy a handgun in all 50 states, as long as you buy it from a licensed dealer you can buy it from anywhere you want.
Theres a Million other things in there its a Christmas Tree. We just hung a Million Ornaments on it. Were taking the Background Check and making it a pro-gun bill. Unfortunately some of my colleagues havent quite figured it out yet because they werent standing in the room writing it. My staff was. Ill be perfectly candid about it. This will probably break on Monday in the Wall Street Journal. So your getting a little of Inside Baseball.
I have a hard time thinking of any justification for removing HIPAA privacy restrictions re the NICS database though. Anything short of being legally adjudicated mentally incompetent in a court of law, where you have the right to counsel to defend your position, sounds like bypassing due process to me. So why would HIPAA regs need to be dropped unless they were going to go fishing through medical records?
I also don't like what I see in the travel regulations. In some respects it provides protection from local and state laws but it requires both arms and ammo to be locked up separately at all times and defines 'travel' as everywhere you are while traveling. In hotel/motel rooms and virtually all circumstances.
It allows you to transport your goodies anywhere but in effect you are disarmed the entire time by virtue of it all being locked up. I see precedents for restricting travel in ways that could go beyond transporting firearms. It's setting up a mentality that anyone who travels outside their home state is suspicious by virtue of merely traveling.