Carolyn's next step

As most folks who follow gun law/gun rights issues in the U.S. are probably aware, The Decider signed the NICS "Improvement" Act into law yesterday. I've made my position on this legislation clear, and whether one agrees with the Brady Campaign/NRA axis that this is a "victory for common sense gun control"/"win for American gun owners," or with the Violence Policy Center/Gun Owners of America axis that it's a "Trojan horse gun control law"/"stab in the back for gun owners," it's now a done deal.

That taken care of, Carolyn McCarthy has announced her "next step," and it's not learning what a barrel shroud is.

President George W. Bush signed the nation's first new gun-control legislation in 14 years Tuesday to help keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill, and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy immediately announced she would take her crusade to the next step.

This time, she and others want to close the so-called "gun show loophole" that allows some dealers to sell firearms without background checks.

These "dealers," by the way, are no more gun dealers than a person who sells his used car is a car dealer. I touched briefly on the issue of private gun sales yesterday--I think the biggest priority on the citizen disarmament side now will be closure of the "gun show loophole" in the short run, and requiring all gun sales to go through licensed dealers in the long run.

Schumer agreed that the next item on the gun-control agenda would be to require background checks in every gun sale, but predicted that would be harder to get passed because of opposition by the National Rifle Association. The law signed Tuesday, in contrast, had NRA support.

Yeah--I was kind of thinking that "opposition by the National Rifle Association" (instead of open collaboration) might have come in useful in the case of the NICS "Improvement" Act, too.

Of course, some would argue that by pushing for H.R. 2640, the NRA headed off attempts to impose something more onerous. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have discouraged Carolyn and Chuck from pursuing their "next step." For some reason, I can't shake the idea that it would be better to have made the enemy fight for every inch of the previous step, rather than help them advance to the next one, but I, of course, lack LaPierre's keen tactical mind.