Is Universal Background Check Really Dead?
BY Herschel Smith
11 years, 6 months ago
NYT:
A strange thing happened after 45 senators killed a bill to expand background checks for gun buyers five weeks ago: many of those same senators suddenly discovered a profound affection for background checks. They had been for them all along, it turns out, and wanted nothing more than to keep guns out of the hands of felons.
“Knowing your interest in gun control, I wanted to give you an update on legislation I have co-sponsored and supported recently,” Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, wrote to his constituents earlier this month. “I have been adamant from the beginning of the gun control debate that our current background check system needs strengthening and improving.”
[ … ]
This kind of dissembling by gun control opponents has been rampant for years, but rarely have the National Rifle Association’s most captive lawmakers been so nakedly deceptive as in the weeks since public rage grew over the gun vote. Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, also voted against the Manchin-Toomey measure, and she immediately suffered the backlash of angry voters in her state. So she issued a statement saying “I support effective background checks” and reminding voters that she had backed the misleadingly named Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act — a measure that does nothing to close the loopholes for Internet or gun-show sales and that was, in fact, supported by the N.R.A. because it actually makes it easier to transport guns across state lines.
But triangulating and equivocating is what politicians do these days. It doesn’t mean that the universal background check will end up law. However, let’s suppose that the NYT editorial board is right (later on in the editorial), and this issue isn’t going away.
Very well. Bring it. We defeated you once, and we’ll do it again. Word to everyone who has been entrusted with a stewardship of a vote in the House or Senate. This won’t make it past the Senate, but even if it does, it will go down in remarkable and inglorious flames in the House.
When it does, support for this bastard proposal will haunt you for the rest of your lives. Gun owners never forgive, and never forget. Don’t believe the hype about public support for universal background checks. It’s all a lie.
Tread carefully.
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