The Battle Will Take Longer than We’d Hoped

 

“Gun Owners of America [has] been pressing lawmakers who may have wavered on this emotional issue of background checks.” - CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, April 10, 2013

We've been fighting these gun control battles for almost 40 years now. And we almost always win. But it's almost always a nail-biter.

And so it is on Obama's gun control agenda.

We'd hoped that we could stop the gun control bribe-o-thon early (and risk-free) by blocking the motion to proceed to the package. But thanks to sell-outs like Pennsylvania's one-term senator, Pat Toomey, we're going to have to take a different battle position and defeat the package at a later stage.
The Senate today overcame the Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster and voted to move to proceed to Harry Reid’s gun control bill (S. 649). Where Reid needed 60 votes, the tally was 68-31. Click here to see if your Senator sold you out by voting to “move to proceed” to the bill.

Republican defectors who voted anti-gun were: Alexander (TN), Ayotte (NH), Burr (NC), (Traitor) Chambliss (GA), Collins (ME), Corker (TN), Coburn (OK), Flake (AZ), Isakson (GA), McCain (AZ), Heller (NV), Hoeven (ND), Kirk (IL), Graham (SC), Toomey (PA) and Wicker (MS).

So, here's where we are. Right after the Senate proceeded to the gun control bill, Harry Reid used his privileged recognition to put a bunch of amendments in place. In Senate parlance, they are referred to as an "amendment tree;" and they contain the universal registry bill, the Feinstein gun ban, and the magazine ban. These will be voted on in upcoming days.

As for the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer universal registry bill, don't believe the press' efforts to sugar-coat it. If you have ever had an "Internet ... posting" on (or related to) your gun, you can sell it only by going to a dealer and filling out a 4473 and getting the government's approval. Only a cave man would be exempt.

And once you have a 4473? Well, the ATF is going from dealer to dealer, copying the information on these forms, and feeding it into a database. But, says Toomey, he's against universal registries. This is where it would have helped if Toomey had consulted someone who knew something about guns.

Registration and violation of privacy.

First of all, Toomey’s anti-registry language prohibits photocopying the 4473's, but it doesn't prohibit going into the FFL with a laptop and copying all the information. Second, ATF takes the position that the data it's accumulating in a database is not a "registry," so Toomey's ban does no good. Third, guess what the sanction is for violation of Toomey's anti-registry language? Answer: Eric Holder has to choose to prosecute himself and his own department.

But this isn't the only bad thing about Toomey-Manchin-Schumer.

Section 107 of the sell-out also waives any federal privacy prohibitions under HIPAA to sending the names of Americans with PTSD, ADHD, and post partem depression to the gun ban database. But that’s not all.

Believe in Jesus, hand in your guns?

Because private shrinks will be able to add patients names into a federal database of the mentally ill - without due process - you will be at their mercy.

As Red State editor, Erick Erickson says, “Activist mental health providers will probably be overly aggressive in adding people to the list. Give it five years in liberal areas and people who believe in the physical resurrection of Christ will probably get automatic entry onto the list.”

And as for veterans? Toomey-Manchin-Schumer reinforces the proposition that bureaucrats in the Department of Veterans Affairs can take away veterans' rights without any due process. If a veteran has $30,000 to spend getting back the rights Toomey-Manchin-Schumer wrongly took from him, the sell-out creates yet another redundant money-trap for restoration of rights that shouldn't have been taken away in the first place.

Repealing gun owner protections.

What if you want to travel across the country? McClure-Volkmer allowed you to do that with an unloaded gun in the trunk (18 U.S.C. 926A). But, under the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer sell-out, unless you can "demonstrate," to the satisfaction of the New York police (1) where you came from, (2) where you're going, (3) that you're legally entitled to possess the gun in the place you can from, and (4) that you're legally entitled to possess the gun in the place you're going, they will arrest you in New York.

The Toomey-Manchin-Schumer sell-out creates a Biden-like commission to insure that the cries for gun control continue.

Like sprinkles on a pile of dung, Toomey and Schumer steal some of the proposals we drafted and try to use them to get us to buy onto gun control. But it won't work.

The gun movement is united against this disgusting pile of gun control.

Here is the new battlefield. Because of the Senate rules, many of the upcoming gun control votes will need 60 (out of 100 votes) to move forward. That will almost certainly be the case with the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer proposal. And because the entire Second amendment movement - GOA, NRA, etc. - is against the Toomey language, it virtually ensures his amendment will fail.

And if Toomey-Manchin-Schumer doesn't pass, then Reid probably won’t have enough votes to overcome a second filibuster on the bill - as it would contain the original anti-gun language sponsored by Reid and Schumer. This all but guarantees that the legislation would die, as Republicans and a half-a-dozen Democrat Senators would then team up to keep the bill from getting the required 60 votes.

One last question or thought: Did we waste our time supporting the Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster and fighting the motion to proceed? No, because we forced Obama to fire most of his ammunition, as he dragged his human props around Washington in an effort to exploit them for political gain.
If Obama had been able to wait to play this card until Toomey-Manchin-Schumer came up for a vote, that vote would be a lot harder for us to win.

But Obama has already played this card for his "they deserve a vote" theme. Okay, they're getting their vote. But by the time we reach the vote on cloture on Toomey-Manchin-Schumer, Obama's exploitation of the victims of Newtown will begin to be realized for the cynical exploitative political ploy that it is. And he will be less able to shift gears and use the victims for the theme “They deserve a ‘yes’ vote.”

ACTION: So contact your Senators. Tell them to vote against cloture on the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer sell-out.

Click here to send your Senators a prewritten email message.