Enhanced background checks a prelude to gun confiscation and more

I have a confession to make.

When I wrote my article in June 2018 about how Trump and the GOP were ready to put the final pieces of the puzzle voiding the Second Amendment in place, I was incorrect in my conclusions.

It turns out the pieces being laid were more like connecting all of the edge pieces to create the frame of the puzzle. The final pieces will be laid in the upcoming gun control legislation Trump and the GOP are promising to bring us when Congress reconvenes next month.

Putting the frame together began in March 2018 when Congress passed and Trump signed — even though he promised not to — a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill. What does a spending bill have to do with gun control? I’m glad you asked.

Being the cowards they’ve always been, the New York liberal and the swamp he said he’d drain snuck a rider in the omnibus that provided billions of dollars to finance the so-called “Fix NICS Act.” The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and provided so-called “improvements” to the background check system.

In reality, Fix NICS expanded the government’s power to deny gun ownership for something as minor as unpaid traffic tickets, and it set things in motion to establish an FBI data base of all gun owners.

Seizing the anti-gun momentum at the time, then-Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) introduced the Crime Gun Tracing Modernization Act, a bill requiring the creation of a government-run “searchable, computerized database” of any and all records pertaining to the sale, importation, production, and shipment of firearms.

As this was going on the Senate, Democrats — who were the minority party at the time — introduced the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, a bill prohibiting gun ownership without a license and required a license to buy, sell, transfer, or receive a gun. The Blair Holt bill also requires the U.S. attorney general to maintain a “federal record of sale” system to track every gun purchase made in America.

One of the arguments supporters of gun registries and licensing used when these measures were introduced was how it would be impossible to implement them without enhanced, universal background checks, an obstacle mentioned by anti-gun groups like the Michael Bloomberg-financed Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. In a statement from President John Feinblatt about the passage of Fix NICS, he said that while the bill is a good start it doesn’t go nearly far enough:

“If all Congress does is pass the Fix NICS Act, then lawmakers will have failed to meet this moment and do their job. Across America, students, educators, mothers and fathers are demanding that Congress finally get serious and meet this moment with robust action to reduce gun violence. This bill is a small step forward. Congress needs to do much more, starting with legislation to require criminal background checks on every gun sale — supported by 95 percent of Americans.”

It looks like Trump and the GOP are ready to remove the background checks obstacle.

….this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2019

In a discussion with reporters two days after this tweet, Trump reiterated his background checks agenda:

“There’s a great appetite, and I mean a very strong appetite, for background checks. And I think both Republican[s] and Democrat[s] are getting close to doing something with background checks.”

While pretending to oppose gun control legislation, Mitch McConnell has fully embraced Trump’s agenda, and promises to put background checks and red flag laws “front and center” when Congress reconvenes in September.

By the way, universal background check legislation has already passed in the House.

As the Constitution-killing Unibrow Party spins hyperbolic anti-gun rhetoric about expanding background checks, never forget what they’re really after.

It’s not safety … it’s our liberty.

 

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David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.

His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

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