Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

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.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And this is the problem with the political games that the NRA plays.

Games are fine for entertainment purposes; but not for setting policy that affects people's liberty.

me said...

Now sailor, you leave the Michael Vicks of congress alone. They just want to watch us fight each other from their we-know-better-than-you offices.

We know what the winning step will be...but can someone please give me a rough idea on how many more steps there are before we get there? Maybe that's an unfair question...how many more steps have to be taken before we stop playing games and do something?

Michael Hawkins said...

What I like most about this entire episode, is that almost everybody now knows that the NRA is instrumental in passing gun legislation that really *is* dictated by common sense, or what passes for it.

Anonymous said...

I, of course, lack LaPierre's keen tactical mind.

Yeah, but Sebastian and others seem to be as "tactical". I mean among our self proclaimed gun right leaders.

I am so tired of stupidity from our side.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a great way for the government to add some more fees and taxes to the process of transferring gun ownership.

Just think, you go to the local gun shop to sell your gun to a friend,
pay a transfer of ownership fee,
pay a discontinuance of ownership fee...

The new owner
pays sales tax,
pays a new registration fee...

The Government just made $$.

Now they the cash and can afford to fund a new study on the evils of private gun ownership!

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

I am so tired of stupidity from our side.

Sebastian certainly has an outlook different from mine (and yours, clearly), but he's a sharp guy.

There's room for honorable, intelligent folks to disagree.

Anonymous said...

"There's room for honorable, intelligent folks to disagree."

I don't question his intelligence.