Posted on 09/16/2019 6:24:54 PM PDT by robowombat
TheHill.com Prospects for Trump gun deal grow dimmer BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 09/16/19 06:54 PM EDT
Prospects for a bipartisan deal on gun control legislation have dimmed significantly as President Trump and Democratic leaders appear to be far apart on the key issue of expanding background checks.
Republicans expect Trump to put forward a proposal addressing gun violence later this week, but Democrats predict it is likely to fall far short of what is needed and that they may not vote for it.
Democrats are pressing Trump to agree to a gun control bill already approved by the House, but the president has yet to even signal support for a scaled-down background check bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
“I don’t think anyone thinks he’s going to endorse the Toomey bill, which is weaker than the House bill,” said a senior Democratic aide, expressing growing doubt on Capitol Hill that Trump will strike a bipartisan deal.
As a result, the likelihood that Congress will fail to take action on gun violence a month after a new spate of shootings across the country appears to be growing.
Republicans say the political momentum within their party to expand background checks suffered a blow last week when Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke declared, “hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s, your AK-47s” at Thursday’s primary debate.
It was a big moment for O’Rourke’s campaign, but it underscored long-standing arguments from gun rights proponents that Democratic efforts on gun control are really aimed at the confiscation of firearms.
“This rhetoric undermines and hurts bipartisan efforts to actually make progress on commonsense gun safety efforts, like expanding background checks,” Toomey, who has been at the center of Senate negotiations, warned Friday.
It’s still possible the two parties could agree on some lower-hanging measures.
White House officials last week floated the idea of a new smartphone app that would be connected to the National
Instant Criminal Background Check System, which could be used to conduct background checks for sales between individuals who are not licensed dealers.
But it will be difficult for Democrats to agree to that proposal if it is a high watermark of what can be accepted by Republicans.
Manchin dismissed the idea of the smartphone app.
“The app’s crazy, totally crazy,” he said, arguing that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System works well as it is. “We have something that’s not broken, and they want to fix it and throw something at it. To throw that into a bill would be wrong.”
Similarly, Democrats are signaling that just passing “red flag” legislation that would empower law enforcement officials to confiscate firearms from people judged to be dangerous is not enough.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued on the Senate floor Monday that without an expansion of background check requirements, even a person who had his or her firearm confiscated by the police could immediately purchase another one from an individual who is not a federally licensed dealer.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a key negotiator who has had discussions with Trump on gun control, told reporters that the president needed to give them an affirmative sign by the end of last week in order to keep momentum from dying in Congress.
“My worry is that the forces inside the White House that are representing the gun lobby may be prevailing,” Murphy told reporters Monday. “I think that’s a shame.”
“They told us we would hear back by Thursday and we didn’t hear anything on Thursday or Friday or Saturday or Sunday,” he added. “Silence is probably indicative that they’re not willing to move.”
Manchin also sounded a pessimistic note.
“I haven’t heard back from their staff,” said Manchin, who panned the idea of creating a new smartphone app to conduct background checks.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said Monday afternoon that Trump is still reviewing his options, and a senior Republican aide said the White House is expected to present a plan to GOP leaders later this week.
“I think they’re looking at that and a whole range of issues, but I don’t think they’ve come to any conclusions,”
Thune, who met with Trump last week, said when asked about the prospect of the president endorsing expanded background checks.
Still, as more days pass without progress, gun control advocates in the Senate are growing increasingly pessimistic.
“It’s typical of the president and his statements on controversial issues. He’s on the side of the American people until he’s on the side of the special interest,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.).
Conservatives are already warning the White House and GOP leaders of a backlash from gun rights advocates if Trump endorses a proposal to expand background checks to all online and gun show sales, as envisioned by the Manchin-Toomey bill.
“If Republicans abandon the Second Amendment and demoralize millions of Americans who care deeply about Second Amendment rights, that could go a long way to electing a President Elizabeth Warren,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned last week, referring to the liberal Massachusetts senator, who is running for president.
A senior Republican aide on Monday expressed skepticism that Trump will endorse legislation that would significantly expand background checks, such as the Manchin-Toomey bill or the universal background check measure passed by the House in February.
In a call on Sunday with Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Trump made no commitment on the House bill, according to two officials familiar with the call.
In a call on Sunday with Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Trump made no commitment on the House bill, according to two officials familiar with the call.
Two officials...Nanzi and Chuckie.
These random mass murders by chronically mentally ill people may preventable tragedies, but gun control is not the way to prevent these mentally ill people from committing a crime.
Then again, many of these mass murders may not be preventable at all and are more a byproduct and symptom of our increasingly sick society . The basic problem is that we live in a free society and to regulate the mentally requires laws that, if abused, destroy those freedoms
As we see in the FISA abuses, laws put in place to protect the public from from violence by a vanishingly small minority of people , can be abused to damage the liberties of the vast majority.
We also have learned that the Progressive Left, when they assume power, will without exception, take these potentially intrusive laws, and abuse them and weapons them against the society that they hate
Stalin once famously observed regarding the famine he engineered in the Ukraine that served over 10 million people to death “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.” . Of course, that was just the start. Stalin then went on to mass murder items of millions more people, most his own friends and countryman
In order to maintain liberty and freedom in our society, it is infinitely preferable to risk, and even tolerate, the random and tragic acts of violence by a small number of mentally unstable people than to cede those liberties to soulmates of people like Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Le duc tho, Mugabe and others who have no qualms about emulating their role models when it comes to mass murder.
In a nut shell, I'm willing to tolerate the tragedy of a few random acts by the mentally ill to prevent the statistics of millions of victims of genocide engineered and perpetrated by the evil.
This is not some crazy fever swamp delusion. It's painfully obvious from the frankly bizarre and sociopathic and yet very public public comments and behavior of at least several of the current crop of Democrat presidential candidates. More frightening, is that they are successfully appealing to a like minded constituency that amounts a depressingly large segment of todays sick society
Then again, many of these mass murders may not be preventable at all and are more a byproduct and symptom of our increasingly sick society . The basic problem is that we live in a free society and to regulate the mentally requires laws that, if abused, destroy those freedoms
As we see in the FISA abuses, laws put in place to protect the public from from violence by a vanishingly small minority of people , can be abused to damage the liberties of the vast majority.
We also have learned that the Progressive Left, when they assume power will, without exception, take these potentially intrusive laws, and abuse them and weaponize them against the society that they hate
Stalin once famously observed regarding the famine he engineered in the Ukraine that starved over 10 million people to death “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.” .
Of course, that was just the start. Stalin then went on to mass murder millions more people, many them his own friend,. colleagues and countryman
In order to maintain liberty and freedom in our society, it is infinitely preferable to risk, and even tolerate, the random and tragic acts of violence by a small number of mentally unstable people than to cede those liberties to soulmates of people like Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Le duc tho, Mugabe and others who have no qualms about emulating their role models when it comes to mass murder.
In a nut shell, I'm willing to tolerate the tragedy of a few random acts by the mentally ill to prevent the statistics of millions of victims of genocide engineered and perpetrated by the evil.
It the price off a free society and a small price to pay to protect against the wannabe Stalins that are increasingly common in our dysfunctional political culture
This is not some crazy fever swamp delusion. It's painfully obvious from the frankly bizarre and sociopathic and yet very public public comments and behavior of at least several of the current crop of Democrat presidential candidates.
More frightening, is that they are successfully appealing to a like minded constituency that amounts a depressingly large segment of todays increasingly sick society
I think Trump will just introduce a "poison pill":
Put the "instant check" system on line, where somebody can enter a drivers license (or other state ID#) and name into a web page, and get back whether the person is ineligible to own a firearm, along with a confirmation number to show that the name had been checked. Doing this check would insulate private sellers' from any liability for selling to an ineligible person.
BUT, no firearm serial number would be entered, so it could not be used as the basis for a registration database.
AND the web service would be open to ALL, not just firearm sellers. Women could use it to check out new boyfriends. Employers could use it for prospective hires. Apartment owners for tenants. It would get so much use that it would be utterly worthless for gathering firearm data.
The Dems would shoot it down, and Trump would walk away saying "See? They are not serious about stopping sales to bad people!"
Even more to the point, guns are a particularly inefficient tool for mass casualty attacks . There are much simpler and effective methods if one is so inclined.
Start with the one he approved.. the bump stock ban.
Wile E Coyote has no political affiliation.
But men would be forbidden to use it to check out new girlfriends. That would be sexist. Women are always good … only men are suspect and need to be "checked out".
It takes absolutely no imagination to envision Antifa thugs in their mad max wannabe outfits visiting a similar genocide on the delporable members of American society while the Obamas, Betos, Castros and Kamalas in government do nothing but incite them to an even higher and more murderous frenzy. Heck, we have already watched this play out for real in places like Portland, San Jose and many others
I certainly hope that he will do something like that!
Poison pill is exactly the tactic he wants to use!
I sent POTUS, my CongressCritter and both Senators an email letter; Each of them got a variation of the letter, because each of them has a restriction on the length of the email.
Each of us MUST get engaged in this fight! I choose email letters:
Dear President Trump,
I am a retired Navy Captain; I served my country for 28½ years, always bearing in mind that my oath to “. . . support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. . . .” was inviolate. I first took that oath on March 4, 1963, and have re-taken it upon each promotion during my service years. I still honor and live by that Oath.
I am a patriot; I love the United States of America and revere the Rule of Law and the US Constitution, both of which differentiate the USA from every nation in the world. Faith, Freedom, Duty, Honor, Country have been my guide posts throughout life.
As a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, I am very distressed by the knee-jerk “ban the gun mentality” the Liberal chattering and professional political classes have brought into the public debate. Thus far, no pundit or politician has suggested any change to our system which would reduce gun violence.
Indeed, the Liberal “suggestions” and “demands” I am familiar with do nothing more than make criminals of law-abiding citizens. Parenthetically, I believe that IS the REAL Liberal intent, and I further believe that they want to ban private gun ownership in the USA. We must not let them prevail!
I believe that the proper approach to take is to review ALL of the federal laws now on the books and throw out the unconstitutional ones and the ones (and there are many!) that don’t work. Then seek ways and means to enforce the remainder in a proper and Constitutional manner.
Lenient policies and a lack of discipline in our schools and courtrooms are the cause of our difficulties in regards to gun violence and crime, not an absence of laws. We have enough laws; surely we do not need any new ones – a Presidential Commission MIGHT be helpful in this regard.
And, please, drop the notion of implementing or encouraging “Red Flag” laws. It is my considered opinion that existing state “Red Flag” laws are unconstitutional in respect of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution, and will be adjudged so in the near term.
I write to urge you to preserve the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Please take no action which will infringe on the God-given US citizen’s rights the Founding Fathers so wisely enshrined therein.
Finally, please seek the counsel of John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D., Founder and President of The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC - https://crimeresearch.org), “. . . a research and education organization dedicated to conducting academic quality research on the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety; educating the public on the results of such research; and supporting other organizations, projects, and initiatives that are organized and operated for similar purposes.” Please contact him at johnrlott@crimeresearch.org. I believe you will find his advice helpful.
Patriotic Americans are counting on you to stand firm against this liberal assault on our Constitution!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Frank L. Davis, Jr., MBA
Captain, USN (Ret)
cc: Senator Marco Rubio
Senator Rick Scott
Congressman John H. Rutherford
You are most welcome - I hope my letter helps us maintain our FReedoms!
And, maybe, inspires others to write/call POTUS and their CongressCritter and Senators.
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