Gun Law Update -- Early Brady Plans Revealed

Push to end all private sales tops list

by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America

I have this quote direct from Sarah Brady in a letter addressed to me:

"On Election Day, we helped deliver a strong victory for President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden. They will be two of the most powerful allies we have ever had."

This is what Obama meant when he told you to your face that he respects the Second Amendment. He is the acknowledged champion of the anti-rights gun-ban movement.

POINT ONE

Most of you already know that phony talk about "gun-show-loopholes" was a smokescreen. Sarah and her team now confirm this. They are planning for: "universal background checks for EVERY gun sold in this country." (Her emphasis, not mine).

Gun shows, she says, are now merely "included" in that plan, this will appear as proposed legislation shortly after inauguration day.

The new gun-tracking plan will require somewhat complex legislation, to mix personal or private sales, and transfers between family members, in the centrally managed FBI NICS system for licensed dealers. A mechanism to accomplish that means making government larger and hiring more help.

The rhetoric has now expanded from phony "gun-show loopholes" to a new "deadly loopholes" idea: "We know Obama and Biden share our commitment to closing deadly loopholes in our gun laws."

If there was any doubt amongst the public about Obama's "support" for rights, the Bradys, now that the election is over, express the truth: "The Obama-Biden ticket won convincingly while clearly supporting gun laws." Everyone supports gun laws that disarm violent criminals. The Bradys though are talking about something else -- gun laws that disarm, encumber or infringe on the rights of the innocent. They plan on government tracking of every firearm in private hands.

POINT TWO

Campaign talk about making the phony "assault-weapons" ban permanent has morphed into "enact a stronger, comprehensive federal ban on military-style assault weapons." They're drafting it right now (Congress doesn't draft these things, interest groups do and hand it to them on platters).

The only thing that could be "stronger" than Clinton's total ban on the sale of new products would be to go after existing firearms in civilian hands, which Clinton left alone. That would require contrabanding, outright confiscations or at a minimum, registration schemes (see Point One, above). We'll have to wait for the actual bill to be introduced to see what they plan.

"Comprehensive," and "military-style" seem like code words for "more guns banned," far greater lists and categories than Clinton was able to get enacted. Normal capacity magazines like police use will undoubtedly be included, and if the past is prologue, the lists of guns will include standard household firearms the public has safely owned for decades, with little concern for criminals who misuse firearms (already strictly illegal and widely unenforced). Never forget -- "assault" is a type of behavior, not a type of hardware.

I've said it before and it bears repeating. If the Bradys get Obama to go after CRIMINAL MISUSE of firearms, they'll have widespread support from NRA types and the marksmanship community as a whole. If they instead go after private property the community already peaceably owns, they'll meet outraged resistance.

POINT THREE

Sarah Brady is asking Obama to "close the deadly holes in our current laws that allow terrorists to buy guns." This is a solution in search of a problem, since terrorists already can't legally buy guns. Brady president Paul Helmke talks instead of blocking "suspected terrorists." That could mean anyone.

It's a back door way to vastly expand the NICS Index -- the list of prohibited possessors that reportedly includes more than ten million Americans. Once you're on, it can be next to impossible to get off, so making it larger serves the goal of the gun banners wonderfully. Many (but not all) currently in the NICS index are violent felons and other low-lifes who belong there.

It's not completely clear who they'd like to add, but in the past, an effort was made to grant arbitrary authority to the Attorney General to add names to terrorism "watch lists." This would prevent those people from air travel and place other restrictions on civil liberties. Sort of like Guantanamo detainees without the need to be caught shooting at Americans on a battlefield. Anyone on that list would be automatically banned by a NICS check, and those checks would no longer be limited to retail purchases from dealers.

FYI, if you're placed on the NICS list, it suggests you're a prohibited possessor whether you are or not, so any guns or ammo you already own or even touch could then constitute a felony. To a zealous cop or judge, a NICS listing might require you to prove your innocence, a nightmare of legal problems. That list should be scrupulously accurate and easily corrected, tasks government is known to do worse than their "management" of the economy.

Just for the record, any actual terrorist is totally banned from buying or having guns in this country, but they could hardly care less about lists kept in West Virginia by the FBI. Terrorist by definition means "We smuggle weapons you can't even get, easier than you can buy a bag of cocaine in any America city."

An aside -- these "terrorists" (generally a code name for radical Muslims) are determined to kill and blow up everything they can, and they prove it around the world constantly, you needn't take my word for it. They haven't done it here since 9/11 for one main reason -- president Bush, although hampered with constant attacks in the media (which have now swayed large swaths of the public) has been killing them off as fast as he can, before they can strike us here. He may take a lot of flack, and be looked down upon by many, but he just may be remembered as one of the greatest presidents we have ever had the luck to have. Please don't write to complain to me about that. I'm just noting that the Muslims are killing everywhere but here, and president Bush is leading that charge. What's the bumper sticker? "Saving your butt, like it or not." OK, so he says he doesn't read a lot, that's another discussion.

POINT FOUR

Sarah (Brady, not Palin) included one bald deception in her message by saying "we achieved a major victory when the first federal gun law in over twelve years passed." She refers to the NICS improvement act, for which both the Bradys and NRA took credit. It expands the NICS index by helping states add nut cases (the non-technical description) to the list (a rule Brady rightly applauds). It also lets falsely accused or no-longer-ineligible people get off the list, which you couldn't do previously (a rule NRA rightly applauds).

What hasn't been passed "after eight long years of watching the gun lobby run loose in the halls of power" (her words) was a single federal law that directly improved the rights of gun owners in their normal every day lives. Not one.

Authorities got armed and protected. Manufacturers got protected. Cured or falsely accused nut cases got a redress of grievances. Storm-disaster victims got something. But your routine human right to carry, right to defend yourself, right to travel armed, right to shop away from home, right to get a gun from your dad or brother in another state, right to get a tax break for going to the range, or for teaching your kids how to shoot safely -- no laws like that passed through Congress in all those years. What a lost opportunity while we ran loose in the halls of power. If only we had some of these laws: http://www.gunlaws.com/sunshin.htm

Sworn to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution, Congress has done nothing of the sort when it comes to your Second Amendment rights. That's a national disgrace, and it will be sorely felt when Brady and her evil cohorts savagely attack what rights you have remaining.

POINT FIVE

Suggestion for action --

1 - ALERT your local marksmanship clubs and fellow marksman by emailing them this Gun Law Update;

2 - DECIDE to go to lunch or dinner the week of January 12 before inauguration day at any decent restaurant near you (just pick a date and place and tell everyone to go there);

3 - AGREE together -- in person -- to get the word out and show up at your state capital and other high profile spots when infringements to your right to keep and bear arms are assaulted. Agree to face up to people who disrespect your rights and do harm to the precious and sacred Constitution of the United States of America.

More details when they arrive.
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