Thursday, February 28, 2013

Gun Background Checks DOA in Congress

Hey what the heck?

The Dems are looking to get bubkas?

At LAT, "Gun background check bill in danger of stalling in Congress":
WASHINGTON — The centerpiece of President Obama's initiative to lower gun violence, a law that would require background checks for nearly all gun purchases, is in danger of stalling in Congress, signaling a steep climb for any potential changes to the nation's gun laws.

New regulations on private sales appeared the most likely reform to pass Congress after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December. But no legislation has been introduced to expand the background check requirement even though a key committee in the Democratic-controlled Senate is scheduled to begin deliberations on gun proposals Thursday.

Separately, Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would oppose any expansion of background check requirements. His committee would oversee any gun bills in the House.

Frustration by gun control advocates surfaced Wednesday when Vice President Joe Biden described concessions sought by gun rights proponents as "so porous that they are going to allow a truck to be driven through the holes in the legislation they are proposing, loaded with tens of thousands of weapons."

Seeking to break the logjam, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has made gun control a personal crusade, flew to Washington to meet with Biden and key members of Congress. Bloomberg brought evidence that gun control can win votes: He spent more than $2.2 million to help a Chicago-area candidate, Robin Kelly, win an upset victory Tuesday over a fellow Democrat who had an A rating from the National Rifle Assn.

Bloomberg and other gun control supporters cast the vote as a rebuke to the gun rights lobby. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam disagreed, saying a liberal Chicago district had replaced one pro-gun control representative with another.

"They did not gain an inch," he said. "We did not lose an inch."

Although negotiations continued, no progress on background checks appeared evident in the Senate, where a bipartisan group struggled over how to broaden them. The major sticking point: whether private citizens who sell guns directly to others should be required, like licensed dealers, to keep records of the sale.

Gun rights backers warn those records could be used to create a national registry of gun owners, which they oppose.
Good.

The buzz was that expanded background checks were the main thing the Dems would ram through, but there's no support it turns out. The GOP needs to be bold and wrap a gun bill defeat around the president's neck. They need to hammer this White House for fiddling while our fiscal solvency burns. These are awful people. Hammer these idiots.

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