The sky is not falling, people. Really.
So, H.R. 45 has been proposed and sent to a House committee for review. Big whoop. So does Carolyn McCarthy’s revised Assault Weapons Ban. Every year, like clockwork, she throws it out there, and every year it withers on the vine.
This is no different.
In case you’ve been living under a rock (or you don’t have a public email address that gets deluged by the fringe), H.R. 45 is a proposed national scheme for licensing and registering all civilian-owned firearms. It would require a permit to purchase or transfer any firearm, and its record-keeping requirements are fairly onerous.
If I thought it had a chance, I’d be worried. I’m not worried.
In short:
Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 – Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked. Prescribes license application, issuance, and renewal requirements.Prohibits transferring or receiving a qualifying firearm unless the recipient presents a valid firearms license, the license is verified, and the dealer records a tracking authorization number. Prescribes firearms transfer reporting and record keeping requirements. Directs the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system.Prohibits: (1) transferring a firearm to any person other than a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with national instant criminal background check system requirements, with exceptions; (2) a licensed manufacturer or dealer from failing to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements of this Act; (3) failing to report the loss or theft of the firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours; (4) failing to report to the Attorney General an address change within 60 days; or (5) keeping a loaded firearm, or an unloaded firearm and ammunition for the firearm, knowingly or recklessly disregarding the risk that a child is capable of gaining access, if a child uses the firearm and causes death or serious bodily injury.Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of firearms provisions covered by this Act.Directs the Attorney General to: (1) establish and maintain a firearm injury information clearinghouse; (2) conduct continuing studies and investigations of firearm-related deaths and injuries; and (3) collect and maintain current production and sales figures of each licensed manufacturer.Authorizes the Attorney General to certify state firearm licensing or record of sale systems.
Cute thing, naming it after a teenaged victim of Chicago gang violence. Of course it makes sense, since the bill is the brainchild of Bobby Rush, a Representative from Chicago’s lovely south side.
Like most liberals, Rush fears nothing so much as being insignificant, so he resorts to grandstanding stuff like this to generate attention. Rush went AWOL from the Army in 1968, and he went on to found the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, an affiliation that lasted only one year. In 1969, he was jailed on weapons charges.
Poor guy: he just wasn’t very good at the whole revolutionary thing. Even hanging with Farrakhan couldn’t help propel him into the spotlight.
So he plays his hand at Chicago politics. If ever there’s a place to make money, Chicago is it. Thing is, Rush can’t even raise much in the way of money from the political machine there.
He can’t even get a single co-sponsor for his little gun control bill. It’s worth noting that he also proposed the same thing last year, and it died.
Here’s the deal. What we have to fear are sneaky, incremental regulations. They’ll be justified using some variation of the phrase “common sense.” Those stand a chance, even if it’s a small one. Histrionic omnibus bills like H.R. 45 will not.
This isn’t 1993, folks.