S. 374

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GRNC On S.374 And S.649

April 8, 2013 by

Grass Roots North Carolina issued an alert last night regarding the pressure that is being put on Sen. Kay Hagan and five Republican senators to support gun control. They note the ads being run by MAIG and petitions being gathered by OFA. GRNC has some suggested messages to send to Hagan and to the other senators.

From GRNC:


MAIG & Obama radicals pressuring Hagan & others

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vows to bring S. 649, the latest “universal background check” (read that “registration”) bill to a vote as early as this week, Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” Obama’s “Organizing for Action, and the media have begun a full court press to pass whatever gun control they can foist on the American public.

In fact, North Carolinians “Against Gun Control” just dropped 39,000 petitions, presumably gathered by Obama’s radicals at “Organizing for Action,” on Hagan. In response, the National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban forged by GRNC and others is running a campaign against Hagan and 5 other senators.

S. 374 & S. 649 would make you a criminal

There is nothing benign about “universal background checks,” which are gun control code words for “universal gun registration.” Not only would S. 649 open the door for registration, it and similar bills under consideration would make it a 5-year federal felony to:

  • Leave town for more than 7 days, and leave your wife, partner, or roommate at home with your guns;

  • Lend a gun to a friend to take shooting or to go hunting;

  • Loan a gun to your mother if she lives at a different residence;

  • Hand a gun to someone at a gun club which is not a shooting range;

  • Teach someone to shoot on your own land, if you hand them the gun; or

  • Fail to report a gun as lost or stolen within 24 hours, even if you are on a hunting trip deep in the woods and are unable to do so.

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!

  • CALL & EMAIL SEN. KAY HAGAN IMMEDIATELY at 202-224-6342 and by CLICKING HERE or going to: http://www.hagan.senate.gov/contact/ and deliver the message below.

  • CALL @ EMAIL Sen. Richard Burr at 202-224-3154 and by CLICKING HERE or going to: http://burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm and deliver the message below.

  • Call and email senate Republicans Pat Toomey (PA), Chuck Grassley (IA), Tom Coburn (OK), and Mitch McConnell (KY)

  • DONATE TO GRNC: In the next two days, GRNC will be sending 30,000 automated telephone alerts to gun-owning voters. THIS DOESN’T COME CHEAP. Please help with the effort by CLICKING HERE or going to: http://www.grnc.org/join-grnc/contribute

CONTACT INFORMATION

Sen. Pat Toomey (PA), 202-224-4254, email HERE or at: http://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact

Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA), 202-224–3744, email HERE or at: http://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Sen. Tom Coburn (OK), 202-224-5754, email HERE or at: http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactform

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), 202-224-2541, email HERE or at: http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

DELIVER THIS MESSAGE

To Hagan:

Suggested Subject: Don’t Support Universal Background Checks/Registration

Dear Senator Hagan:

You recently expressed support for the type of “universal background checks” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring to a floor vote as early as this week. You’ve also been pressured by Michael Bloomberg’s misnamed group, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” and President Obama’s “Organizing for Action.”

But I live in North Carolina. They don’t. I am one of the 300,000 gun-owning North Carolina voters who will follow the recommendations of Grass Roots North Carolina and the 39-member “National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban” they have formed.

More importantly, *I* am the one who will work to remove you from office if you fail to: (1) Vote against any “motion to proceed” on S. 374, S. 649 or whatever other thinly disguised gun registration bill hits the Senate floor, and (2) Support efforts to filibuster such legislation.

I would suggest you act like your political career depends on it, because it does. I will be closely monitoring your actions via Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.

Respectfully,

To Senate Republicans:

Suggested Subject: Don’t Support Universal Background Checks/Registration

Dear Senator:

I am one of the hundreds of thousands of gun-owners who follow recommendations of the 39-member “National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban”. They have formed to oppose any and all gun control.

More importantly, *I* am the one who will work to remove you from office if you fail to: (1) Vote against any “motion to proceed” on S. 374, S. 649 or whatever other thinly disguised gun registration bill hits the Senate floor, and (2) Support efforts to filibuster such legislation.

The National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban will not accept any “compromise” on competing universal gun registration schemes — not between Sens. Charles Schumer and Tom Coburn, not between Sen. Joe Manchin and the NRA, and not the “alternative” being put together by Sen. Chuck Grassley. We have long ago learned that “compromise” in the gun debate defines a process in which we lose less freedom than under our opposition’s original proposal, but we still lose.

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The Revised S. 374 – Fix Gun Checks Act of 2013

March 12, 2013 by 19 Comments

Today in the Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) submitted a substitute amendment for S. 374. This substitute not only changed the name of the bill from the Protecting Responsible Gun Owners Act of 2013 to the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2013 but it also provided that action component that had been missing from the earlier version.

Title I of the bill deals with records submission by the states to the Federal government for purposes of integrating that information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This section provides a carrot and stick approach to getting the states to submit data. It provides for a $100 million appropriation for grants to the states to improve their databases and to help them submit the necessary data to the FBI for NICS check. Up to 10% of this money could be used for a relief from disabilities program. That is, a program to report those to whom firearm rights are restored. I must say this would be a change coming from Chuck Schumer who has stymied the relief from firearms disabilities for years.

The improved data that the bill concerns would be the court records of  those convicted of a felony and those under either a court order or convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence as well as the mental health adjudications that would cause the loss of firearms rights. The stick component that goes with the grants from Attorney General would be a reduction in monies from the grants under Section 505 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The states would have two years to bring the records submitted to the 50% or greater level or lose 3% of the Federal monies. It goes up to a 4% reduction after three years if the state didn’t submit at least 70% of the required records. Finally, after the third year there would be a mandatory 5% reduction for any state at less than 90% compliance.

All in all, I can’t argue too much about the intent of Title 1. It is in the interest of everyone to have the records at state level be as accurate as possible and it is also in the interest of everyone that the records in the NICS check system be accurate.

Title II of the S. 374 is a gun controller’s wet dream.

First, Section 202 makes it illegal for a firearm transfer to be made between unlicensed persons. It would required a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer to first take possession of it, enter it in their bound book, perform a NICS check, fill out a Form 4473, and then and only then, complete the transfer.

The exceptions include:

  • Bona fide gifts between spouses
  • Bona fide gifts between parents and children
  • Bona fide gifts between siblings
  • Bona fide gifts between grandparents and grandchildren
  • Transfers made from a decedent’s estate by will or operation of law
  • Temporary transfer between unlicensed persons if
    • It occurs in the home or curtilage (adjacent property) of the transferor
    • The firearm is not removed from the home
    • And the duration is less than 7 days.
  • Temporary transfers in connection with lawful hunting or sporting purposes
    • At a range if kept within the premises of the range at all times
    • At a “target firearm shooting competition” under the auspices of a State agency or non-profit organization and the firearm is kept within the premise of the shooting competition.
    • If while hunting to a person with the requisite hunting license during a designated season for a legal game animal.

Section 202 would set a maximum fee for doing the paperwork. It would also require the Form 4473 be kept by the FFL doing the transfer.

The penalty for violating this section is not at all clear. However, it seems to fall upon the FFL who would be liable for a $5,000 civil fine and an up to six months suspension of his or her license. (If you can find another penalty for violating Section 202, please let me know.) Sec. 202 become 18 USC 922 (s) which under 18 USC 924 (D)(5) stipulates a year’s imprisonment and a unspecified fine.

Section 203 is equally egregious. It mandates the reporting of lost or stolen firearms within 24 hours of discovery to the “Attorney General and to the appropriate authorities.” More importantly, the penalty for knowingly violating this provision is 5 years imprisonment!

If passed, the law goes into effect in 180 days from passage. So far, it has passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 party-line vote.

While the gun prohibitionists would like to have bans on standard capacity magazines and semi-automatic firearms with ugly cosmetics, universal background checks is what they really want because the only way to make enforcement of them possible is a national firearms and firearm owners database. As Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel Corporation, famously said, only the paranoid survive.

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Results Of Today’s Senate Judiciary Committee Meeting

March 12, 2013 by 1 Comment



As I said earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee was going to resume meeting to discuss three gun related bills and the nomination of Kenneth Gonzales. They have released the results of the meeting and I have posted it below. Gonzales’ nomination was not acted upon nor was Dianne Feinstein’s S. 150. However, both Sen. Chuck Schumer’s S. 374 and Sen. Barbara Boxer’s S. 146 were reported out of committee with amendments.


Results of Executive Business Meeting – March 12, 2013
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a continuation of an executive business meeting to consider pending legislation on March 12, 2013. The Committee was not able to complete action on all pending matters and the meeting recessed subject to the call of the Chair.

Agenda
I. Legislation

S. 374, Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013
Ordered Reported by Roll Call Vote, 10-8

Amendment ALB13180 (Schumer)
Adopted by Unanimous Consent

S. 146, School Safety Enhancements Act of 2013
Ordered Reported by Roll Call Vote 14-4

Amendment OLL13111 (Leahy)
Adopted by Unanimous Consent

Amendment OLL13112 (Grassley)
Withdrawn

 Last week I wrote that I found it strange that Sen. Chuck Schumer’s S. 374 – Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013 – did not have an action component. It merely consisted of findings which were more suited to a Senate Resolution than to actual legislation.

That was then and this is now. The amendment that Schumer made today in committee to S. 374 contains the meat of the bill and it isn’t pretty. Not only does it have universal background checks but it contains a provision that requires gun owners to report stolen weapons within 24 hours to authorities. The bill has also been renamed to the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2013. There is more to the bill and I will have a separate post up about it after I finishing reading the whole thing.

Here is the link to my separate post on the bill.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Meets Again

March 12, 2013 by 1 Comment

Last Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee met to vote on nominees for various judgeships and on a whole host of gun control bills. They ran out of time and only passed out S. 54 which is Sen. Leahy’s bill on “gun trafficking”.

Today they will continue this meeting. US Attorney for New Mexico Kenneth Gonzales will be back on the agenda as the nominee for a District Court judgeship for the District of New Mexico. Also on the agenda are the three gun control bills that they didn’t vote on last week.

As an aside, Chuck Schumer’s S. 374 – Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013 – still doesn’t have an action component to the bill. It still reads more like a resolution than a bill.


CONTINUATION


A continuation of the March 7, 2013 Executive Business Meeting has been scheduled by the Committee on the Judiciary for Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 10:15 a.m., in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.


By order of the Chairman.


AGENDA


Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226
March 7, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.


I. Nominations


Kenneth John Gonzales, to be United States District Judge for the District of New Mexico


II. Bills


S.150, Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (Feinstein)


S.374, Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013 (Schumer)


S.146, School Safety Enhancements Act of 2013 (Boxer)

The Judiciary Committee is also scheduled to meet on Thursday, March 14th, on a similar agenda.

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S. 374 – Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013

March 7, 2013 by 1 Comment

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) introduced S. 374 – the Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013- on February 25th and it will be voted for in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. The text of this Orwellian sounding bill is below. If you read it closely, it seems to be missing something. That something is the action component to go with the so-called findings part of the bill.


S 374 IS

113th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 374

To ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the national instant criminal background check system and require a background check for every firearm sale.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

February 25, 2013

Mr. SCHUMER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the national instant criminal background check system and require a background check for every firearm sale.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013′.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Congress supports and respects the right to bear arms found in the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

(2) Congress supports the existing prohibition on a national firearms registry.

(3) There are deficits in the background check system in effect before the date of enactment of this Act and the Department of Justice should make it a top priority to work with States to swiftly input missing records, including mental health records.

(4) If the citizens of the United States agree that in order to promote safe and responsible gun ownership criminals and the mentally ill should be prohibited from possessing firearms, it should be incumbent upon all citizens to ensure weapons are not being transferred to such people.

END

The introduction to the bill calls its a bill to require all prohibited persons be listed in the NICS database AND to require a background check for all gun sales. So the question remains where is the action component of the bill. The
bill as written reads like a Senate Resolution minus a whole bunch of
whereas’s.

The devil is always in the details and I expect the devil to be at play with this bill. What will the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee add to this bill today and what will be added as amendments on the floor of the Senate assuming that this bill, as expected, moves out of committee?

In my opinion, the innocuous sounding text of the bill plus the missing action component makes this a dangerous bill. I see it is a vehicle sponsored by one of the most notorious gun prohibitionists in the Congress to saddle us with gun control that we don’t want or need.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Votes On Gun Control Tomorrow

March 7, 2013 by



The Senate Judiciary Committee will have an executive business meeting tomorrow morning at 10am. There are a number of items that should be of concern to those concerned with the Second Amendment and gun rights.

The first item on the agenda is a confirmation vote on six nominees for US District judgeships. Of particular concern is Kenneth John Gonzales to be a District Court judge for the District of New Mexico. Gonzales is currently the US Attorney for New Mexico and the man behind the egregious prosecution of the Reese family of Deming, NM on charges of arms smuggling. They have already been found not guilty on 24 out of 28 charges and are seeking dismissal of the other four charges due to prosecutorial misconduct.

National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and the Firearms Coalition’s Jeff Knox have been doing yeoman’s work in covering this case since the beginning. Here are a couple of their latest reports. The Tea Party of Luna County (NM) has been on the case since the beginning as well.

Based on the prosecution’s behavior under Gonzales, I and many others feel he is unfit to sit on the bench. David Codrea is urging that people contact Sen. Chuck Grassley R-IA) to make their opposition known.

The other major items on the Judiciary Committee’s agenda are votes on four gun control measures.

II. Bills

S.150, Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (Feinstein)

S.54, Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013 (Leahy)

S.374, Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013 (Schumer)

S.146, School Safety Enhancements Act of 2013 (Boxer)

Given the composition of the committee, I really have no expectation that they won’t pass these measures. The only question is whether any Republican votes for any of these measures.  I would hope not but there is no guarantees. Sebastian has a good post up today about the risk of letting gun controllers have any victory. In my opinion, a party line vote is about the best we can expect in the Senate Judiciary Committee and would count as a win.

It’s time to tell the Republicans on the committee that we expect them to hold the line. Contact info is available here.