- Mass media publicity on the newly proposed gun-show bill
is grossly inaccurate.
-
- The bill has almost nothing to do with what you've probably
heard so far. The so-called "gun-show loophole" headlines are
a minor detail and basically obscure what the bill really does.
-
- I've just finished studying the eight pages of legalese.
Here is it what it calls for:
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- 1. Unprecedented federal control over gun shows nationwide
-- perfectly legal gun shows become strictly outlawed without prior federal
approval, licensing and registration of each show;
-
- 2. Centralized federal licensing and registration of
every gun-show promoter in the nation;
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- 3. Centralized federal registration of every vendor --
including non-gun vendors -- at any gun show in the country. In order for
me to sell my BOOKS at a gun show I'll have to pre-register and prove who
I am, or face arrest; a private individual looking to sell a single gun
would be treated as a vendor under this law and must be registered even
if the gun isn't sold;
-
- 4. Centralized federal registration of EVERY PERSON who
attends a gun show in America, whether or not they make purchases of anything
at all -- you won't be allowed in without registering;
-
- 5. Centralized collection of "any other information"
on gun-show attendees, as determined solely by the Secretary of the Treasury;
-
- 6. Imprisonment for attending a gun show and failing
to give up any information required by regulations of the Secretary of
the Treasury;
-
- 7. Imprisonment of any gun-show promoter who fails to
register a single vendor;
-
- 8. Imprisonment of gun-show promoters who cannot prove
they notified every person attending a gun show of the new rules, and obtained
from attendees any information the Secretary of the Treasury mandates by
regulation;
-
- 9. Centralized collection of "any other information"
the Secretary of the Treasury decides, by regulation, is necessary on vendors,
attendees, and the gun show itself;
-
- 10. Submission by gun-show promoters of vendor registration
logs a) 30 days before any gun show, and b) additional submission of updated
vendor registration logs 72 hours before any gun show, and c) additional
submission of vendor registration logs within five days of the close of
any gun show, under penalty of arrest and imprisonment for non-compliance;
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- 11. Identification of vendors only by use of federally
approved photo ID that may include use of a social security number, electronically
encoded data, or "biometric identifiers" such as fingerprint,
voice print, retina scan, iris scan, or similar (as defined under 18 USC
1028(d)(2));
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- 12. Creation of a new license (in addition to a gun-show-promoter
license), similar to FFLs, for individuals who want access to the NICS
national background check system for facilitating gun-show sales for private
citizens;
-
- 13. Regulations to be issued by the Secretary of the
Treasury on the procedures, data collections, methods and implementation
of the entire process to federally control gun shows, in addition to the
requirements made by the proposed statute; such regulations will not be
known, drafted or even suggested, until after the McCain-Lieberman law
is enacted;
-
- 14. The proposed bill also puts pressure on state governments
to make at least 95% of their law enforcement records for the past 30 years
openly available to the federal government; and
-
- -- makes unlimited funds available for the states to
comply with these federal goals;
-
- -- requires annual federal review of states' compliance;
-
- -- increases penalties (up to ten years imprisonment)
for record-keeping violations;
-
- -- grants states permission to make even more restrictive
requirements without being out of compliance with these new federal laws
(and by implication, puts states that resist these rules in federal trouble);
-
- -- provides hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars
for more law enforcement under numerous programs including project Exile
and others;
-
- -- hires 200 more Federal BATF Agents;
-
- -- provides $10 million to the National Institute for
Justice to give out for research on "technologies that limit the use
of a gun to the owner"; and
-
- -- provides for annual reports (in great detail) by the
Attorney General to Congress on whether the Brady law is working;
-
- 15. Enlargement of the federal bureaucracy and appropriation
from taxpayers of "such funds as are necessary" to license, register
and monitor an estimated ten million non-criminals who attend the thousands
of gun shows held annually in America; and
-
- 16. Oh yes, I almost forgot about the so-called "loophole"
part the media is so excited about -- the McCain-Lieberman bill will make
an honest private citizen a criminal for transferring a gun to another
honest private citizen, without first registering the transfer with, and
getting permission from, the federal government (represented by the FBI
at its data complex in Clarksburg, West Virginia).
-
- Transfer or possession of a firearm to or by a criminal
(a "federally prohibited possessor") is completely unaffected
by the McCain-Lieberman "loophole" bill, so I guess it's accurate
to characterize it as a loophole bill.
-
- To sum up: Perfectly legal gun sales -- with no victims
or criminal activity of any kind -- are outlawed at gun shows by the McCain-Lieberman
bill, unless the sale is pre-registered with the federal government; real
crimes are totally unaffected; and your friends in the federal government
take over full control of gun shows -- which have been previously free
of government infringement for more than 200 years.
-
- Please write your local news outlet and Congressmen at
federal and state levels and politely request a correction.
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Greg Spencer gspan2@home.com
5-23-1
-
- Dear Jeff - I'm sorry for how lengthy I know this will
end up being, but I was just looking over this article sent to you by
the patriot, and I have some issues with its accuracy. I am a firearms
enthusiast, collector, and concealed carry licensee, but this guy appears
to be 'fanning flames' with a few of his points here. I'll address my
concerns and let you be the judge.
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- As to his following points: 1. No concern.
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- 2. No concern.
-
- 3. I have read the text of the bill, and I cannot find
any verbiage requiring licensing and record keeping of non-gun vendors.
-
- 4. Again, I cannot find supporting verbiage for this
claim.
-
- 5. see 4.
-
- 6. see 4.
-
- 7. Misleading. Should read fine and/or imprisonment,
and even then this only applies to gun vendors. 8. Misleading. The penalty
is fine and/or imprisonment, and again, I cannot find any verbiage indicating
the information gathering applies to attendees/vendors not trading in firearms.
-
- 9. Misleading. No verbiage found indicating that there
is any information gathering being done with respect to non-gun vendors/attendees.
-
- 10. No real issues.
-
- 11. Grandstanding. see http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=328246730+0+0+0&
WAISaction=retrieve
-
- 12. No concern.
-
- 13. No concern.
-
- 14. Most of the statements here are directly from S.
890 with the exception of the 'unlimited funds' he mentions. Although
this is a dreadful piece of legislation to begin with, most of the issues
in Title II of S. 890 are EXACTLY what the NRA and other gun rights advocacy
groups have been asking for in the first place--- stricter enforcement
of existing laws instead of newer and more restrictive laws. Who wouldn't
advocate a national Project Exile? Who wouldn't want to see more prosecutions
of gun crime in high crime areas? And finally, I think it would be absolutely
great if a performance review of Brady Law was required to show just what
an abysmal failure it has really been. The 'smart gun' research will
happen with or without this legislation.
-
- 15. This bill requires no registration or monitoring
of non-gun purchasing attendees.
-
- 16. This would apply to transfers made at gun shows
only. Two buddies can still trade firearms amongst themselves provided
they live in the same state. No private citizen can currently legally
transfer a firearm to another party across state lines.
-
- I'm including links to the texts of both S.767 and S.890
should you care to review on your own. Though this article was based
on S.890, I reviewed S.767 to see if there was any blending going on.
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- S. 890 http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.88&filen
ame=s890is.txt&directory=/diskb/wais/data/107_cong_bills
-
- S. 767 http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.88&filen
ame=s767is.txt&directory=/diskb/wais/data/107_cong_bills
-
- That's it, item by item. I've written my reps and told
them not to support this lousy bill, and I'm absolutely against any newer
and more restrictive gun legislation because the government cannot even
enforce (or in most cases clearly interpret) the laws that already exist.
However, I believe in fighting a clean fight, and adding hyperbole and
disinformation only makes sincere opponents sound like the whackos that
Schumer and Feinstein always try and paint us as.
-
- Please consider reviewing this article and the possible
disadvantages of keeping it on your site.
-
- Kindest regards, Greg Spencer >
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