House Democrats made no bones about their legislative priority in 2019: gun control. Specifically, criminalizing the private transfer of firearms between law-abiding citizens.
“I do believe, because in this Congress…there is bipartisan legislation to have common sense background checks to prevent guns going into the wrong hands. It doesn’t cover everything, but it will save many lives,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last week in an interview with CNN.
“This will be a priority for us going into the next Congress,” Pelosi added.
Responding to the shooting that left 12 dead in her home state of California, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says there is “bipartisan legislation to have common sense background checks” pic.twitter.com/3w9xlPvHcE
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 9, 2018
With Dems occupying at least 227 seats in the House, compared to the GOP’s 198 (10 seats are still up for grabs), gun-control legislation will indubitably be reintroduced and debated next year.
The real question is what becomes of the debate? Trump has suggested on at least one occasion that he’d be open to strengthening background checks.
“Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!” said Trump following the mass killing in Parkland, Florida back in Feb.
Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2018
The president’s “official” position on the topic was later clarified by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders who told reporters, according to The Hill, that Trump supports “not necessarily universal background checks, but certainly improving the background check system.”
“He wants to see what that legislation, the final piece of it looks like,” she explained. “Universal means something different to a lot of people. He certainly wants to focus and improve on the background check system.”
Korwin: Here’s Why You Need Oppose Universal Background Checks
What’s worrisome, in addition to Trump’s initial remarks, is that public support for universal background checks is overwhelming. Mostly because the devils in the details and the average Joe doesn’t understand how the system works.
Any firearm purchased from a gun shop or FFL is subject to a background check. However, sales or transfers from one private citizen to another, in some 28 states, do not require a background check. This is the putative “loophole” that anti-gunners complain about. They contend that every transfer should require a background check, hence the term “universal.”
While that sounds good in theory the truth is that there are real problems with implementing universal background checks. The first is efficacy. Since the vast majority of individuals responsible for the vast majority of what they call “gun crime” will not comply with the mandate because they’re criminals, i.e. lawbreakers!, (drug dealers, violent felons, etc., people already prohibited from owning firearms in the first place) it’s unreasonable to expect the law to have a profound impact.
Moreover, at least one national survey of prison inmates investigating so-called “crime guns” indicated that 90 percent were procured via illegal means. In other words, criminals didn’t buy these weapons at a gun show or at the local hunting club or from your uncle Bob. Rather, criminals obtained their guns via straw purchasers, theft or the black market.
Beyond efficacy or the lack thereof, there is the problem of taxation. Background checks aren’t free. FFLs charge a “transfer fee” every time they run a background check. What we have to assess is whether it is constitutional to force citizens to pay what is tantamount to a tax every time they let a friend, family member, neighbor, co-worker buy or even borrow a firearm. One can argue that the fee associated with the mandatory transfer chills one’s 2A rights.
Pat McNamara Sees No Problem with Mandatory Waiting Periods, Universal Background Checks
Then there is the issue of enforcing universal background checks. For law enforcement to know whether a firearm was lawfully transferred they need immediate access to detailed records. In short, a centralized registry that contains the names of every gun owner in the country along with the guns they own. Otherwise, there is no way to ensure compliance with the law in a timely manner.
Time is key here. Police can’t waste precious man hours tracking down paper records in a filing cabinet in the back room of a gun store just to be sure that the Remington 700 uncle Bob sold to your hunting buddy Christopher was a lawful transfer. It’s just not an efficient use of resources, particularly if the primary goal of law enforcement is to target the real, violent offenders on the streets. Hence the need for the national database.
Finally, if we agree that a national database is necessary to ensure compliance then we must agree that universal background checks are a nonstarter. The reason is obvious. A national database is a kill-me-first list for a government bending toward tyranny. The 2A was enshrined in the Constitution to be a safeguard against that type of existential threat to liberty and individual rights. Tipping our hand to Big Brother as to who owns what renders that safeguard useless.
And so, we must be extremely vigilant in the coming months. There’s no doubt that a universal background check bill is coming. We need to be prepared to fight it with everything we got.
I agree 100 per cent with Nancy Pelosi. No other country in the world permits criminals and nut cases to buy guns and that is what is going on when you have private transfers. This makes the thousands of State Laws an absolute joke as States with lax laws funnel guns into States with strict laws. Safe Storage laws are also necessary because we have 1,300 children a year being killed with loaded guns laying around the house not to mention how easy it is for criminals just to kick in a door and walk off with deadly weapons. Gun owners are their own worst enemies because when the wrong people get guns and commit crimes then their is a knee jerk reaction to simply band guns altogether. This is not rocket science folks. Its reality.
STOP LYING ON THE DEMOCRATS, The Russian money Laundering NRA will tell you anything to sell you there agenda, next they will be begging for Money. Mueller has cut their Russia money off, now they are broke, Loesh the Nazi Queen will keep putting racism in your head and you will continue to buy it, there are only 15% of Democrats are against guns, strictley for votes, they do not make decisions about Guns for us
WOW….. just WOW….. you have been so BRAINWASHED by the Left it is NOT even funny……
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LOOK at your comments….. your didn’t state a Single FACT ….. it is ALL Left-Wing PROPAGANDA……
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“15% of Democrats are against guns” — that “may” be true of the population, but with Dem Politicians that is a Different matter….. it is far closer to 95% of Dem Politicians that want to BAN Guns and evoke all of their strict Gun Regulations on LAW Abiding Citizens…… while having mercy on the Criminals……
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WAKE UP !!!! You are being fed PROPAGANDA by the Left…… Go and look at the FBI statistics…..
Untrue.
So people, keep in mind this just another way to disarm and silence the honest patriotic voter. Pretty simple, No doubt this will be a felony. So the honest gun owner will get arrested, charge with a felony, lose his 2nd amendment rights and no longer gets to vote. They are also the ones with much more to lose, such as money and other assets fighting these charges while the deadbeat liberals voter get a court appointed attorney to represent them.
What a sad state the USA in falling into.
ALL we need to do is PASS A LAW to make it ILLEGAL to COMMIT MURDER! PROBLEM SOLVED! I KNOW we ALREADY have Laws that say that but to THIS one we add, “AND WE REALLY MEAN IT!!!” because I think the bad people don’t believe we DO MEAN IT! And NOW they WILL know we DO and they will HAVE to find ANOTHER WAY to solve their problems.
These Gun grabbers need to start committing Suicide,with maybe a little help.
Need to start with Pelosi, always have rope, unless the bitch bans it also.
While this really doesn’t bother me except it is just a feel good law. Keep passing useless law because in the meanwhile, people committing non-violent crimes now have no jail time and are immediately released back on to the streets. I am sure this will be considered a non-violent crime. Yup, keep passing laws that have no consequences to the local gang-bangers, the people who shouldn’t have guns in the first place.
How about the death penalty is you steal a gun and sell it or use it in a crime? How about a minimum of 10 years of HARD LABOR (no taxpayer resort time) just for stealing it. Lets put some teeth in the penalty part of these laws rather than a slam on the wriest!!!
I agree. Let’s also have 10 years of hard labor for the idiot that allowed the gun to be stolen.
It amazes me that liberals are so relentless in making up laws they believe criminals will obey. At what level of stupidity does one have to go before breathing stops? Congress, the opposite of progress, makes laws. But they don’t become law until the President signs it. Do they seriously believe that’s going to happen in the next 2 years?
Still waiting for that ‘common sense’ gun control to be defined. Have the fools proposing these bills ever heard of the black market? I’m sure all the criminal gun runners are FFLs and can transfer weapons. Pelosi should be aware of the futility of these laws, especially after the latest shooting. They still will continue to introduce them so they can garner votes after declaring ‘I did something’. I don’t think they really care about the health and safety of the public, only their votes.
No, most will not comply. Some will, but others will react by shooting any officer attempting to enforce this kind of bs. It won’t affect crime, but it will certainly get cops killed for no reason.
Pray be just how is a law going to stop any gun sale? Impossible! If laws worked, we would be the most peaceable Nation in the world! No law has ever prevented a crime, never has, never will! Just more feel good for another dead horse!
Sales of illegal drugs …already illegal…and look how easily THAT happens.
The concern over violence by way of guns will never be resolved, or even be reversed to any appreciable measure, unless people realize and admit to the real problem behind it. We need to look at why people have become so cold and homicidal. It took at least a generation to get to the point we are at now. It will take at least another generation to get our society to be more civilized toward one another, that is, if we start, today. More laws against gun ownership will do nothing to stop the violence. Politicians need to get outside of themselves and realize, they do not have all the answers and they are taking the wrong approach with trying to legislate the problem away. Or perhaps they really just do not care, and they are just doing the only thing they know know to do, that being, talk and make laws as though they have the solution?
Nice idea, but how in the world do we “make” everyone less cold and murderous, and more civilized? As for private sales, if everyone were required to have a permit to own a gun, then in a private sale situation the seller would ask to see the permit. no permit, then no sale. Here’s my video on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xERwf8a-qdk&lc=z22fd1axgpqrcf2it04t1aokgexkyro55lvfqv4k3lw2rk0h00410
The reporter should have responded, “Didnt the shooter in CA already poass a background check?”
but of course the media lapdogs aren’t going to call the dems on it.
I predict massive non-compliance.
I am a registered firearm owner and a concealed license carrier. I believe that we have to find a way to prevent mentally disturbed people from being in possession of firearms of any kind. I realize that when a person wants to kill other people that they will find a way. The only way that I can see to slow this down is by identifying them and placing them in a mental institute with adult supervision. At the same time we may be able to get them past what is causing their problem. War veterans are crying for help and not receiving it. Doing this will not solve completely our problem but will help. The other is getting them to accept Jesus Christ.
My problem with this is who gets to decide what amounts to crazy or mentally ill? The simple fact that I don’t trust the government to decide this could be seen as a mental illness, i.e. paranoid.
Only if you are a ” US Citizen ” . Almost all of you probably are not. Read what a USCitizen is…..” a resident of the District of Columbia , one of the 7 insular states , an employee of the Federal Government , enlisted in the Milatary or a dependent of…
So who among you is a US Citizen ?…. crickets… none of what these ass clowns do has zny bearing on you. Start acting like the boss because you are.
None of you even bother to read and understand history, our history. You believe we live in a democracy , we dont. Our form of government is a ” Republic ” and if you understood thst you would turn off the yv, stop reading the propoganda and get back to governing yourselves…that was the plan…self governance..try it.
Resist or Die. We are reaching such a decision point. Most gun owners will comply with registration and confiscation schemes. They have too much to lose if caught by the Gestapo with an unregistered gun. So they comply. Others will resist, obscure, or go dark. Forget elections. The country is too far gone into a police state. And after 80 % of the known guns have been confiscated and the selling of ammunition to civilians banned, crime will multiply tenfold. But the democrats will have excuses for that too. Re-education camps will be the new solution. It will not end until the enslaved revolt.
That’s the problem in a dystopia. There are no criminals, only crime. So the liberal solution is to go after an inanimate object incapable of doing anything instead of addressing the criminal element.
If a person is intent on committing a violent crime, they are going to do it.
Guns are incapable of killing people or committing a violent crime, but guns can be used to do such things with one catch; it takes a human being to pick it up.
Guns are are banned in London so now they are having an epidemic of murder by knives. Who would have foreseen that???
Have you bothered to read the murder per capita rates in other countries, including UK? Our country should be proud that our rate is slightly better than Columbia.