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Report: House of Representatives to Vote on Two Gun Control Bills!

According to reports from Capitol Hill, the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on two gun control bills as early as next week. The first bill, so-called “universal” background check legislation, would criminalize the private transfer of firearms. The second bill, sometimes inaccurately described as legislation to close the “Charleston loophole,” would undermine the Second Amendment right by permitting the federal government to delay a firearm transfer indefinitely without proof that the transferee is prohibited from possessing firearms.

SUPPORT NRA-ILA,  TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021

The 2021 House gun control agenda promises to include H.R. 8, introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), which purports to be a so-called “universal” background check bill. This legislation would make it a crime, subject to certain limited exceptions, to simply hand a firearm to another person. Any time gun owners carry out this simple act, they would potentially be exposing themselves to criminal penalties. 

The pandemic exposed dangers of private transfer restrictions

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic some jurisdictions that had criminalized the private transfer of firearms also shut down access to gun stores or their state criminal background check system. This lethal combination of misguided policies made it impossible for millions of Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights by acquiring, or even borrowing or lending, firearms during the crisis. 

“Universal” background checks do not stop criminals

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), 75 percent of criminals in state and federal state prison who had possessed a firearm during their offense acquired the firearm through theft, “Off the street/underground market,” or “from a family member or friend, or as a gift.” Less than one percent got firearms from dealers or non-dealers at gun shows.

Criminals also defeat the background check system by getting guns through straw purchasers. ATF has reported, “[t]he most frequent type of trafficking channel identified in ATF investigations is straw purchasing from federally licensed firearms dealers. Nearly 50 percent....”

In 2013, the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice researched so-called “universal” background checks and determined that they would not be effective without additional draconian firearm restrictions and efforts to combat straw purchasing.

In a 2018 study, researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the UC Davis School of Medicine found that comprehensive background checks and prohibitions based on violent misdemeanors “were not associated with changes in firearm suicide or homicide.”

There is no “gun show loophole” or “online sales loophole” 

Federal law requires all firearm dealers to be licensed and to initiate a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check before transferring a firearm to a non-dealer, regardless of where the transfer takes place.

There is no overwhelming support for “universal” background checks 

Gun control supporters claim that 92 percent of Americans support background checks on all firearm transfers. However, in November 2014, a background check ballot initiative in Washington was approved by only 59 percent of voters. In November 2016, Maine voters rejected a background check referendum by a margin of 52 to 48 percent, while Nevada voters narrowly adopted an unenforceable background check measure 50.45 to 49.55 percent

“Universal” background checks facilitate firearm registration

NICS would become a gun owner registry if all firearms transfers were subject to NICS checks and the FBI retained records of approved checks indefinitely, both of which gun control supporters have proposed. Such records would include information currently maintained on federal Form 4473, documenting the identity of the firearm purchaser and the make, model and serial number of the firearm transferred. Over time, as people sell or bequeath their firearms, a registry of firearm transfers would become a registry of gun owners. 

Indefinite Firearm Purchase Delays 

The House 2021 gun control agenda also includes H.R. 1446, introduced by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), which would allow unelected government bureaucrats the discretion to cause  indefinite firearm purchase delays. The legislation would eliminate the current 3-day safety-valve provision under the federal firearms background check system that prevents the government from instituting an indefinite delay on firearm purchases for law-abiding Americans

All Federal Firearms Licensees (gun dealers) are required to conduct a background check on prospective purchasers to determine if transferring the firearm would violate state or federal law. Under current law, if an FFL initiates a background check, but does not receive a determination from NICS within three business days, the FFL may proceed with the firearm transfer. After the three-day window, the FBI continues to research the matter that gave rise to an individual’s delay for 90 days after the check was initiated. If it is later determined that the person is prohibited from possessing firearms, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is notified and tasked with retrieving the firearm. 

The current three-day safety-valve provision is vital and protects gun owners in numerous ways. The safety-valve provision ensures that if there is a disruption to NICS or an overwhelming volume of background checks, lawful firearm transfers from dealers can still take place. Most importantly, the safety-valve provision ensures that the FBI carries out its background check duties in an expedient and responsible manner that recognizes the right to keep and bear arms as a constitutionally-protected individual right. 

Absent this provision, the FBI would have less incentive to conduct NICS checks in a timely manner. Moreover, the agency would have free reign to indefinitely delay any transfers they deem undesirable - for whatever political or purported public policy purpose they could concoct. This would turn all firearms sales from dealers into something akin to may-issue licensing. Prospective gun buyers who are not prohibited from owning firearms by law could be denied by bureaucratic dictate through the form of an indefinite delay.

NRA members and other freedom-loving Americans should stay tuned to NRAILA.org and NRA’s H.R. 8 website for updates on this legislation and for vital information on how to combat this threat to liberty.

Use the following link to email your congressional representative:
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20210302/report-house-of-representatives-to-vote-on-two-gun-control-bills

Not good~~ Write your Reps and let them know your position on this legislation!

Senate Bill S1605 has been assigned a "Same As" bill in the Assembly: A3829 Senate Bill S1605

Requires a purchaser of any firearm, rifle or shotgun
to submit to a mental health evaluation . . .

Sponsor:  SANDERS

Recent Actions:  Jan 14, 2021 - REFERRED TO CODES

Review S1605 on NYSenate.gov

What this Means:

In New York State, both the Senate and Assembly must pass a bill before the Governor can consider it for signature (approval) or veto (rejection). A3829 is an identical version of S1605 in the Assembly. Experienced observers know that a bill with a “same as” in the alternate house is an important early sign that a bill could pass both the Senate and Assembly. It indicates that individual lawmakers in each house are supportive of the bill.

What Happens Next:   The committee may amend the bill to satisfy concerns of committee members, leave it as is, or refer it to another committee for further deliberation. The bill may be reported to the full Senate chamber for consideration if a majority share of the committee members support it. If a bill has not been addressed by the committee by the end of the two-year legislative term, the bill is said to have 'died in committee'.

What Can I Do?      You can subscribe to email alerts for A3829 at the following URL: 

  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/A3829

Additionally, all members of the Senate welcome legislative feedback from constituents at nysenate.gov. When you use the New York State Senate website to officially support or oppose this bill, your feedback will be shared directly with your senator.

Elderly Veteran Kills Home Intruder Who Attacked His Wife  By Jason Hall,  Feb 18, 2021

A Vietnam War veteran acted quickly after his wife was attacked by a home intruder carrying a large knife recently.

Herbert Parrish, 82, and his wife, Lois, 79, were inside their South Carolina home when they heard a knock on their back door Monday (February 15), FOX 57 reports.

Lois opened the door to find a man claiming to be looking for his chihuahua and asked if she had seen it. Lois told him "no" and the situation became violent, with the man pushing his way inside as she attempted to close the door.

A police report states the man pulled out a large knife and began attacking Lois before Herbert decided to fight back.

“I felt, we’re gone. He’s going to kill us and take what he can take,” Herbert told FOX 57. “He was not going to go out that door and leave us alive. That’s the way I felt. That’s why I said, 'I’ve got to do something quick and get the edge on him. Get the advantage on him,'”

Herbert grabbed his shotgun hanging on the wall of the door and hit the intruder with the handle of the gun "at least 10 times right in the face" until he was unconscious.

The intruder was identified as Harold Runnels, 61, and later pronounced dead at the Augusta University Medical Center late Monday night from injuries sustained during the incident.

Lois told FOX 57 that Runnels lived in a nearby mobile home and she had seen him walking around the area in the past.

FOX 57 reports both Herbert and Lois Parrish experienced injuries during the attack, but are both expected to make a full recovery.

TV Shows Push Gun Control Myths -- in Sync with Biden by John R. Lott Jr., February 18, 2021

Last week, the Biden administration promised gun control groups that it will soon roll out a massive push for limits on firearm purchases and other measures. President Biden reiterated that promise on Sunday. And the television networks aren’t waiting to lay the groundwork for this effort.

CBS is in a full-court press for gun control on its evening entertainment television shows. The bad guys are always white supremacists who use machine guns — supposedly AR-15s — to commit mass public shootings. Criminals in Mexico supposedly get machine guns from the United States. A father’s desire to protect his family only leads to tragedy when his daughter gets into the gun safe and uses the weapon in a mass public shooting. And guns in the home pose a danger for children. Gun registration is necessary for solving crime.

NBC isn’t to be left out, showing a woman who tried but failed to use a gun to protect herself. Instead, her gun was taken from her and used to kill a police officer. The lesson is that owning a gun will only bring you grief.

And that’s just in the first six weeks of the year. Every show gives an inaccurate impression about firearms, thereby helping in this push for gun restrictions. It’s as though these shows were written by Michael Bloomberg’s gun control organizations. Indeed, the networks are working with these groups. A member of Moms Demand Action recently wrote a Washington Post op-ed headlined: “Guns are white supremacy’s deadliest weapon. We must disarm hate.” So it isn’t too surprising that show after show portrays neo-Nazis using machine guns to commit mass public shootings. CBS’s “SWAT,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “FBI,” and” Bull” all push this theme. They often refer explicitly to these guns as AR-15s. Others, such as “Magnum PI” and “NCIS LA,” constantly show criminals using machine guns.  

In real life, machine guns aren’t used in mass public shootings -- and in only two murders since the 1930s. AR-15s are not machine guns. They are semi-automatic rifles that fire the same bullets with the same power and rapidity as any small-caliber, semi-automatic hunting rifle. 

Also, it’s rare for white supremacists to commit mass public shootings – and in 72% of these murderers the shooters have no obvious political views. By far the next largest group is Islamic extremists, at 10%. People identified as “right-wingers” only make up 3%, and another 3% are conservative or Republicans. The same numbers are liberal, Democrat, left-wing, or black militant. While 58% of mass public shooters are white (excluding Middle Easterners), that is less than their share of the population (64.4%).

“Magnum PI” has an episode where a 12-year-old steals his father’s gun from a bedside table and accidentally shoots his 10-year-old brother. The message is that parents should be afraid of having guns in the home. But, in 2019, there were 37 accidental gun deaths among children under 11 years of age in the entire country. Most of those deaths involve shots fired by adult males, typically in their mid- to late-20s, who also have criminal records and are very likely to be drug addicts or alcoholics. With 43.8 million children under 11, the probability of a young child getting ahold of a gun and accidentally shooting another child is incredibly small. 

CBS’s “Coyote,” starring Michael Chiklis, contains multiple misleading claims in virtually every episode. Chiklis’s character claims that the United States is the source of Mexico’s machine guns, but only 17.6% of all criminal firearms collected by Mexican authorities can be traced back to America. Hollywood screenwriters may not realize it, but you can’t just walk into gun stores in the U.S. and buy machine guns.

CBS’s “FBI” portrays a Mexican family living in the United States. The wife and daughter are murdered in a mass public shooting committed by a white supremacist. The grieving husband/father relates a conversation with his wife about her concerns that the U.S., which is flooded with guns, is more violent than Mexico. In fact, Mexico’s murder rate is six times higher than in that of the United States. Incidentally, while about half of American households own guns, well under 1% of Mexican adults legally own a gun.

The lessons from these entertainment shows are clear. Don’t try to use a gun for protection, and it’s better to not even think of owning one. Also, the biggest danger in present-day America is white racists with machine guns. Gun control advocates know Americans won’t accept more gun control if given accurate information. It is bad enough that news programs provide only one side of this debate. But when Americans just want to be entertained, they still can’t escape lies about gun ownership. 

Lott is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author most recently of “Gun Control Myths.” Until last month, Lott was the senior adviser for research and statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/02/18/tv_shows_push_gun_control_myths_--_in_sync_with_biden_145263.html

HR 127: Bill Calls for Serious Fines, Prison Time for Unregistered Firearms
RELATED STORY:  WITH FINES UP TO $150,000 AND PRISON SENTENCES OF 25 YEARS, REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE'S NEW BILL — HR 127 — IS A MESS OF GUN CONTROL.

• (i) has attained 21 years of age; (ii) after applying for the license— (I) undergoes a criminal background check conducted by the national instant criminal background check system established under section 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and the check does not indicate that possession of a firearm by the individual would violate subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 or State law;

• (II) undergoes a psychological evaluation conducted in accordance with paragraph (2), and the evaluation does not indicate that the individual is psychologically unsuited to possess a firearm; and

• (III) successfully completes a training course, certified by the Attorney General, in the use, safety, and storage of firearms, that includes at least 24 hours of training; and (iii) demonstrates that, on issuance of the license, the individual will have in effect an insurance policy issued under subsection (d).”

While Congress considers another stimulus bill to help out Americans suffering during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, one federal lawmaker has far different plans for America’s law-abiding gun owners. Her name is Sheila Jackson Lee. Her bill, HR 127, brings incredible fines and prison sentences for gun owners.

Biden Calls Guns a ‘National Health Crisis’ — Here’s Why He’s Wrong

Yes, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is the author of HR 127, the much-lamented anti-gun measure recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. She wants gun owners licensed and all their guns registered. On top of that, she wants gun owners to purchase a special insurance policy from the U.S. Attorney General for $800 a year. But perhaps the most egregious item about her fundamentally unconstitutional measure is the penalties from breaking the new laws.

Make no mistake here: There would be absolutely no hand-slapping under the new law. Gun owners wouldn’t get a break for not complying with the licensing and registration mandates. While Lee and other Democrats in Congress refuse to strengthen laws that would increase penalties for violent criminals, she’s plenty happy to send gun owners to jail for up to a quarter of a century—after draining their bank accounts—for small violations of her sweeping legislation.

The measure states an unlicensed person possessing a non-registered firearm faces fines ranging from $75,000 to $150,000. Further, violators would face imprisonment of up to 15-25 years. The law even addresses anyone illegally transferring a weapon, like loaning a gun to a buddy for a hunting trip; that infraction brings fines of $50,000 to $75,000 and a prison stretch of 10 to 15 years.

And that’s not all. Gun owners violating the provision of the measure banning ammunition .50-caliber and larger face massive penalties. Fines range from $50,000 to $100,000, while imprisonment ranges 10 to 20 years. Magazines holding more than 10 rounds would bring fines ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. They would also include prison sentences ranging one to five years.

Penalties aside, if you haven’t heard the details about HR 127 yet, they are quite alarming.  

The measure does, indeed, require registration of every firearm owned in America (except those owned by criminals, of course). The applicable part of the legislation states: “The Attorney General, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, shall establish a system for licensing the possession of firearms or ammunition in the United States, and for the registration with the Bureau of each firearm present in the United States.”

That provision continues: “Under the firearm registration system, the owner of a firearm shall transmit to the Bureau — (A) the make, model, and serial number of the firearm, the identity of the owner of the firearm, the date the firearm was acquired by the owner, and where the firearm is or will be stored; and (B) a notice specifying the identity of any person to whom, and any period of time during which, the firearm will be loaned to the person.”

The section on licensing also proves quite alarming. It states the Attorney General shall issue licenses only in the following circumstances:

Other interesting provisions dictate more stringent licensing requirements for “military-style weapons,” a mandatory $800 gun insurance policy sold by the government, a psychological evaluation to receive a license, a 24-hour training course administered by the Attorney General to qualify for a license and a ban on all private transfers without approval by the Attorney General.

In the end, HR 127 is a horrible piece of legislation for America’s law-abiding gun owners. And, the penalties for violating the proposed law are way over the top. They appear to be Jackson Lee’s attempt at seeing if those Americans who are saying, “Come and take it,” are ready to play hardball or are just blowing smoke.

Biden Pushes Gun Control On Parkland Shooting Anniversary  MICHAEL GINSBERG February 14, 2021

President Joe Biden demanded Congress pass new gun control measures on the three-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting.

“This Administration will not wait for the next mass shooting” to pass new legislation, he announced in a statement. Biden called for universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, and legal liability for gun manufacturers, all positions he pushed during his campaign. (RELATED: ‘It’s A Disaster’: Joe Biden’s Gun Plan Could Bankrupt The Firearms Industry, Advocates Say)

Biden invoked the memory of the 17 students who were killed on Feb. 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“For three years now, the Parkland families have spent birthdays and holidays without their loved ones … All across our nation, parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends have known the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence,” the statement read.

The pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety hailed Biden’s statement, calling it “a fitting tribute to every gun violence survivor.”

Party Registration Deadline Extended, Nick Reisman, February 15, 2021

Note:  Make sure you are registered to vote with the party who you actually want to support. In New York State you can only vote in Primary elections of the party with whom you are registered. ( See the information at the following link:  https://ballotpedia.org/Primary_elections_in_New_York )

New York voters will have more time to change their party registration, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced. 

Cuomo signed an executive order extending the deadline to Tuesday, Feb. 16. The move is meant to create a uniform statewide policy after the party registration deadline fell on a Sunday this year. 

The move is meant to give local elections officials more time to process party registration changes and as many of those local boards of election are short on staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"The right to vote is one of the sacred pillars of our democracy, and as we continue to fight the war on COVID, we can't put democracy on hold," Cuomo said. "Today, we are extending the period for voters to change their party enrollment until Tuesday, February 16 to help break down more barriers to the ballot box and help ensure everyone has a chance to exercise this fundamental right."

The change takes effect immediately.