We need to watch Schumer's Bill

[rojawe]

FROM NRA-ILA

 

SCHUMER BILL INCLUDES STEPS TOWARD FEDERAL GUN REGISTRATION AND MORE!


Friday, March 25, 2011
 
 
Recently, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- who in the early 1990s was the House sponsor of the Brady Act and the federal "assault weapons" and "large" magazine ban of 1994-2004, and the ill-fated, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "Brady II" bill -- introduced S. 436, the multi-faceted "Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011." Its simplistic and misleading title aside, this bill dispels any doubt about the goal gun control supporters have had in mind ever since they began harping about "closing the gun show loophole" more than a decade ago.

 

Schumer's "fix" bypasses the question of gun shows altogether. In fact, the term "gun show" appears nowhere in his bill. S. 436 proposes that virtually all private transfers, regardless of location, be subject to National Instant Criminal Background Check System checks. The exceptions would be extremely narrow; in many cases, even lending someone a firearm would be subject to federal regulation.

 

Near-universal NICS checks for firearms transfers, if coupled with allowing the FBI to retain records on approved firearm-related NICS checks, as proposed by the Brady Campaign, would achieve near-universal federal firearm transfer registration. That, in turn, would move gun control supporters one step closer to their goal of registering all firearms and firearm owners.

 

In fact, Schumer's bill would put information on private transfers more directly into the hands of the federal government than is currently done for dealer sales.  S. 436 would require any dealer who handles a transfer between non-dealers to record information identifying the firearm and its transferor and transferee. That's the same kind of recordkeeping required for dealer sales currently.

 

However, S. 436 would also require the dealer to notify the U.S. Attorney General of the transfer, presumably in the interest of expanding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' dubiously-useful firearm tracing empire. Though the notices would not identify the transferor and transferee, it doesn't take a clairvoyant to envision subsequent calls for the notices to identify them too.