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House Democrats Pushing For Vote On HR 4240

February 28, 2018 by

HR 4240, the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2017, is being pushed for a vote by virtually all the Democrats in the House plus another 11 Republicans. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) filed a discharge petition on Monday to get it brought from the House Judiciary Committee to the floor of the House for a vote. I should note at this point that no hearings have been held on the bill since its introduction.

Highlights of the bill include:

  • Reauthorization of the NICS Program.
  • Grants to the state to improve and automate reporting of prohibited persons. There are also penalties for failure to do so.
  • Amend HIPPA to allow mental health records to be reported to NICS database.
  • A relief from disabilities provision.
  • Require ALL firearm sales at a gun show to have a background check.
  • Require ALL firearm sales as a result of a ad, listing, posting, or other display to have a background check. This would include both sale ads and want to buy ads.
  • Transfers without background checks due to gun show or Internet ads will be subject to a fine and/or 5 year prison sentence. 
  • Prohibition of a gun registry (for now).
This is being pushed hard by the Brady Campaign as it goes far beyond the FixNics Act passed by the House as well as the Senate version. Noticeably absent is any penalty for Federal departments such as DOD for failure to report prohibited persons.
As to the Republicans, they are:

Rep. King, Peter T. [R-NY-2]* 11/03/2017
Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-8] 11/06/2017
Rep. Meehan, Patrick [R-PA-7] 11/07/2017
Rep. Curbelo, Carlos [R-FL-26] 02/16/2018
Rep. Costello, Ryan A. [R-PA-6] 02/23/2018
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [R-FL-27] 02/23/2018
Rep. Dent, Charles W. [R-PA-15] 02/23/2018
Rep. Lance, Leonard [R-NJ-7] 02/27/2018
Rep. Mast, Brian J. [R-FL-18] 02/27/2018
Rep. Donovan, Daniel M., Jr. [R-NY-11] 02/27/2018
Rep. Smith, Christopher H. [R-NJ-4] 02/27/2018

The dates after their names indicates when they became co-sponsors of the bill.

I intend to let my local Congressman know that I’m opposed to this bill as I see it as merely a first step along the road to universal background checks. We also know that there is no such thing as a “gun show loophole” and a “Internet loophole”. They are made up constructs to vilify the sale of private property within the spirit and letter of the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Finally, in an ironic twist, the name of this bill – the Public Safety and Second Amendment Protection Act – is the same one chosen by the Kafkaesque Manchin-Toomey bill.

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