by Michael Hammond
Washington, DC – -(AmmoLand.com)- We’ve been there before: Far-Leftist Democrats try to foist extreme unconstitutional gun control that was actually drafted in the offices of gun-hating lobbyists.
But, rather than call out this legislative garbage for what it is, Republicans have sometimes foolishly thought they could “clean it up.”
The result is always the same: Every tiny concession we get in exchange for a massive gun control victory becomes a new battlefield on the day that the gun control bill is signed into law.
Example: On the original Brady Law, Republicans fought hard to prevent the FBI from blocking all gun transactions by simply refusing to give its approval to a Brady Check. If the FBI REFUSED TO TAKE ANY POSITION on a gun purchase for three business days, the 1993 compromise provided the transfer could go ahead. So how’d that work out?
For the last 25 years, gun grabbers in the government have bludgeoned sellers to refuse to deliver a firearm after 3 days even if they legally could. And now Congress will soon be forced to vote on a bill (H.R. 1446) that solidifies the compromise entirely and replaces it with language that allows the government to hold up your constitutional right to purchase a firearm weeks and weeks for NO REASON.
And, given Joe Biden’s hatred of the Second Amendment, you can expect more and more long waits, as the FBI issues more and more delays. In the end, many law-abiding Americans will NEVER get their guns.
So let me ask you this: How many residents of riot-torn inner cities are huddling with their families, as we speak, because bureaucrats have used delay tactics to deny gun owners their rights for weeks, months, or even years? And they’ve done so for no other reason than that the bureaucrats hate guns and don’t believe anyone should own them?
Remember Carol Bowne of New Jersey who was forced to wait for weeks to purchase a handgun? On the day her estranged boyfriend murdered her in 2015, she was still waiting for approval to purchase a handgun, which she needed to protect herself from the very man who killed her!
Republicans got fooled in 1993 by all the “compromises” we were offered, and if we are fooled by the same trick again, we have only ourselves to blame.
Also in 1993, gun grabbers tricked negotiators into okaying a massive gun control victory by agreeing to exempt non-dealer transactions from the Brady Check — gifts to relatives, hunting trips, shooting ranges, and the like.
Now Congress is faced with a bill (H.R. 8) which would turn all of us into criminals by replacing all of those reasonable exceptions with incomprehensible rules.
For instance, if you “sell” your gun to your son in exchange for yard work under H.R, 8, you are a criminal. So is your son. If you transfer your gun to your son-in-law, you are a criminal. If you show your new gun to your neighbor in your own dining room — and leave the room to go to the bathroom — you are a criminal. If you hear a bump in the middle of the night — and hand your gun to your son-in-law, and the bump turns out to be your cat — both you and your son-in-law are criminals.
Are gun-grabbers just idiots? Or are they trying to create traps for gun owners? Probably a little of both. But with dozens of comical errors and missteps, it’s not something we can “clean up” — even if we wanted to.
One more problem: If every gun transfer has a Brady Check, every transfer will have a Form 4473. And we know ATF is photographing these in connection with its annual inspection in order to compile a de facto national gun registry.
So no, gun rights supporters are not going a negotiate over a national registry of gun owners. Rather, we’re going to use Democrats’ hatred of the Second Amendment to take control of the House in 2022.
Then we can pass the pro-gun legislation (like national reciprocity) which we favor.
Multiple times, during the past 30 years, radical Democrats have concluded that the country had reached a “tipping point” on guns. In 1994, Democrats lost the House. In 2000, they lost the White House, and Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, and the Florida panhandle. In 2014, they lost the Senate.
What will Democrats’ hatred of the constitution cost them in 2022? I’m sure eager to find out.
Michael Hammond is the Legislative Counsel for Gun Owners of America, a grassroots organization representing more than two million gun owners nationwide.
Gun Owners of America
Gun Owners of America has previously supported the right of members and staff to carry firearms on Capitol Hill for self-defense, as GOA supports the rights of all law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in their workplace. Gun Owners of America is a grassroots organization representing more than two million gun owners nationwide and is dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise.
