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Posts Tagged ‘universal background checks’

Manchin and Toomey May Amend Background Check Amendment to Gain Support

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , on April 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The vote count continues to be close but looks to be short of the 60 votes needed for approval, so Senators Manchin and Toomey are trying to sweeten the deal to appeal to rural senators who may be concerned about the requirement that advertised private sales be done through a licensed retailer because some constituents may not have easy access.  This from Politico:

Late Monday night, the New York Times reported that Manchin and Toomey are considering a possible revision to their bill that would exempt residents in rural areas living hundreds of miles from licensed gun deals from some of the requirements of the bill.

The revision, which would be added only as amendment if the Manchin-Toomey proposal is adopted, is designed to appeal to Begich and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said aides familiar with the issue. Manchin huddled with both Alaskan senators on the floor after a vote Monday night.

However, only four Republicans are voting for the bill at this time. They include Toomey, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona.

Other Republicans are on the fence and undecided, such as Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Dean Heller of Nevada. Democrats believe they will pick up some of these Republicans.

In related news, Virginia Senator Mark Warner just spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate and his comments indicate that he supports the Manchin-Toomey-Schumer background check amendment.  Please call Senator Warner and let him know that you do not approve of his support of this amendment.  Tell him that the amendment is not pro-rights but is actually a “Bonanza of Gun Control“.

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These Senators Could Determine Fate of Manchin/Toomey/Schumer Background Check Amendment

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

David Hawkings of Roll Call lists the senators that could decide the fate of the Manchin/Toomey/Schumer background check amendment to the senate gun control bill.

Among the Republicans, only four have so far committed to voting for the background check compromise: Toomey, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona.

And the rest of the lobbying attention is being focused on six of the GOP senators who voted last week to bring the bill to the floor in the first place. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Dean Heller of Nevada, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and John Hoeven of North Dakota.

Hawkings notes that a key to knowing if they have 60 votes is if they bring up the vote early (i.e. Tuesday).  If the vote is put off one day, then they are likely close.  The longer it is put off, the less likely it is they have the votes and the harder it will likely be to get to the magic number.

Hat tip NRANews.

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Language of Senate Gun Control Bill

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , on March 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned has S. 649.

This is the bill that will be bought up for a vote. The “background check” language is identical to the language I analyzed in S.374. The rest of the bill is the same as S.179, Gillibrand’s trafficking bill. It’s essentially those two bills combined together into one bill. Needless to say, this bill is unacceptable and needs to be opposed, unless you want to have it be a felony in many conditions to hand a gun to a friend, such as plinking on your farm.

You now have the specific bill numbers to tell Warner and Kaine to oppose and why.  You know what to do.

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Obama Continues to Use Tragedy to Push Gun Ban Agenda

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on March 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Hill newspaper reports that President Obama will use the 100 day anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to rebuild momentum for his gun ban agenda.  With Congress and recent polls indicating that few of the proposals still have support wide support, the White House is  battling the perception that the move is out of fear none of their agenda is going to pass.

Earnest also disputed the notion that Obama was pressing now over fear that momentum on a gun bill had stalled as time passed since the Newtown shooting. He noted that by the White House’s count, the president and vice president had held 20 events on gun violence since the shooting, and he said the decision to appoint Vice President Biden as the point man on the issue underscored the importance of the issue.
 
Time is not on their side.  Obama new the longer the country moved away from the shooting, the public would also move on and support for any proposals would drop with it.  That is why he wanted to roll out something within a month.  What he could not control was the timeline of Congress.  By the time the Senate takes up its bill we will be into mid to late April. 
 

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Bloomberg, NRA Headed to Battle

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , on March 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Roll Call reported yesterday after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre appeared on Meet the Press that the two are headed for a showdown over legislation now pending in the U.S. Senate:

Mayors Against Illegal Guns hopes to be a counterweight to the NRA in the weeks leading up to Senate action on legislation that would require more background checks for gun buyers and an amendment that would ban some assault weapons, Bloomberg said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He and LaPierre appeared in separate segments of the program.

Bloomberg told Meet the Press Host David Gregory that opinion polls show strong support, even among gun owners, for extending background checks on purchases at gun shows or other venues.  He even repeated the now discredited “40 percent of gun purchases occur in private sales” number.

On those polls, they tend to be push polls to generate a specific response.  I’m a little more interested in polls like this Gallup Poll that show only 38% of those polled are dissatisfied with current gun laws and want stricter laws while 43% are satisfied with current laws.  Granted, those dissatisfied are higher than it was before the Newtown shooting, the fact that even after Newtown (the poll was conducted Jan. 7-10, 2013) almost half of those polled thought that the nation’s gun laws were fine.

So, let Bloomberg delude himself there is this massive outcry for gun control that will result in political payback if legislators vote against them.  Gallup showed just ahead of the President’s State of the Union Address that the public is more concerned about the economy and jobs.  Gun control ranked 6th on the list of concerns with 6% of respondants saying it was the most important issue, well behind the Economy at 25% and Jobs/Unemployment at 19%.

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Bloomberg Drops $12 Million on Ads Targeting Senators on Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun ban group Mayors Against Illegal Guns is launching a campaign in states with senators considered to be persuadable on a package of gun control legislation making its way to the Senate floor in April.  Bloomberg confirmed on today’s Meet the Press that he plans to spend $12 million to run ads in at least 10 states.  He is trying to make them believe there will be a political price to pay for opposing gun control.   The ads are more of the recent attempts to drive a wedge between segments of gun owners and the NRA with the ads featuring what are supposed to be hunters who support gun control.  This from Fox News:

In one ad, the man says he’ll defend the Second Amendment but adds “with rights come responsibilities.” The ad then urges viewers to tell Congress to support background checks. 

In the other ad, the man, a hunter, is shown with the rifle and children playing in the background. 

“I believe in the Second Amendment, and I’ll fight to protect it. But with rights come responsibilities,” he says. “That’s why I support comprehensive background checks.” 

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who also appeared on the program was not impressed:

“He can’t spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public,” LaPierre said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He can’t buy America.” 

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam went further:

“What Michael Bloomberg is trying to do is … intimidate senators into not listening to constituents and instead pledge their allegiance to him and his money,” said spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.
Bloomberg all but admitted this is nothing but exploitation of the Newtown shooting and its victims:

Bloomberg defended the ad buy Sunday , speaking on the same program as LaPierre, saying it would be a “great tragedy” if the momentum for gun control generated after the Newtown mass shooting withered. At the same time, Bloomberg said “I think we are going to win this.” 

We was blunt about the purpose of the ad buys. “We’re trying to do everything we can to press upon the senators this is what the survivors want.” 

We need to keep the pressure up on our U.S. Senators.  Both Mark Warner and Tim Kaine cast their first anti-rights votes this past Friday when they voted against an amendment that would prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty in order to uphold the Second Amendment. 

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Antis Continue to Use Discredited 40% Number Regarding Private Firearm Sales

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , on March 13, 2013| 1 Comment »

President Obama says it.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it.  The gun ban lobby says it.  Amazingly enough, only Joe “Shotgun” Biden has been honest enough to suggest the number may not be accurate but that does not stop him from using it too.  Ask any pol trying to enact a so-called “universal” background check and they will tell you we have to do it because 40% of all firearm sales don’t undergo background checks.  The Washington Guardian is the latest to throw cold water on that argument:

The claims that gun sales made without background checks comprise “more than,” ”as many as,” ”nearly” or “about” 40 percent of all gun sales are rooted in a poll looking broadly at gun ownership in America. Sponsored by the Justice Department through a grant to the Police Foundation, the poll’s principal relevance today is as a snapshot of the way things were when it was taken — 1994.

Economist John Lott has addressed this in great detail recently:

But the high figure comes primarily from including such transactions as inheritances or gifts from family members. Putting aside these various biases, if you look at guns that were bought, traded, borrowed, rented, issued as a requirement of the job, or won through raffles, 85 percent went through FFLs; just 15 percent were transferred without a background check. 

If you include these transfers either through FFLs or from family members, the remaining transfers falls to 11.5 percent.

We don’t know the precise number today, but it is hard to believe that it is above single digits.

It’s no wonder polls show a large number of the public support background checks for “all gun purchases” because they think a lot of sales escape checks.  Which explains why Obama et al keep using the 40% number – it fits their narrative and helps mislead the public.

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Business Week Pretty Much Nails It.

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , on February 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

That DOJ internal gun control memo that NRA obtained is get more and more coverage.  Business Week has this take:

Earlier this month, the NRA ferreted out an internal Justice memo (PDF) in which a leading Obama administration crime researcher mused about the limited potential effects of the president’s main proposals to “ban” so-called assault weapons and large ammunition magazines and make the existing criminal background check system more comprehensive. (The highlighting in this copy appears to come courtesy of the NRA.)

That memo is the one that says that Obama’s gun control proposals will do nothing to stop mass shootings and would have very little impact on crime.  It goes further by saying the only way they could have an impact is to do something few politicians are willing to do – universal gun owner registration and gun confiscation.

The author of the story, Paul Barrett uses some snarky editorial throughout the article but the conclusion is pretty sound:

The Newtown (Conn.) elementary school massacre reignited the gun-control issue. Whether it will result in any meaningful changes will depend in large part on whether President Obama can convince fellow Democrats facing tough reelection campaigns why it’s worth taking politically costly steps that his own experts concede won’t accomplish much.

 

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