What Really Happened

[wayne]

Would somebody please translate what the house voted on last night. If I read this correctly , a person walking around at a gun show selling a gun does not have to do a background check. but if that same person has a table set up it is required. otherwise everything is pretty much normal. I read the bill as passed but I don't speak lawyereze or whatever language they wrote it in. Whatever happened to plain English.

[TinMan99]

I watched the debate on CSpan last night and here's my interpretation of it. Basically, we won. The amendment requires all gunsales at a gunshow to go through an instant background check, which usually takes all of fifteen minutes to get cleared up. If there's a problem, the government has 24 hours to determine if the sale should be allowed or rejected. If they can find no compelling reason to bar the sale, it must be permitted. Now, this also seems to cover private sales that take place at the show as well. Meaning gunshows will have to have a booth setup that will permit private citizens at the show to transfer the rifle with a background check. The way around this is to go out into the parking lot to actually sell your firearm. It protects gunshow operators from liability should gunsales between private individuals occur without the gunshow operator's knowledge and the background check not performed. It also narrows the definition of a gunshow to require that at least ten vendors be firearms vendors for it to be considered a gunshow, thus flea-market sales are exempt, since most weekend markets have two, maybe three people selling firearms, if that many. Basicly, it's probably the best deal we could have gotten given the current political climate. I'm not sure if the flea-market exemption is a good idea since it may come back and bite us on the butt if some little creep gets a firearm at an exempt show and goes on a killing spree at the mall. We may be faced with some heavy legislation if this were to occur. Private sales away from gunshows unless already under state scrutiny can still occur without government intervention or any paperwork on the seller and buyer's part. We have to see what amendments get tacked on today before we can call any of this a victory over Klin-ton. Let's keep our fingers crossed. It's too late to contact your rep, since they're on the floor debating and voting and nowhere near the phone or reading mail today. If you believe in your rights and feel strongly enough to worry about them, everyone, please take the time on future bills to write or call your congressperson.

Now what urks the crap out of me is, over 40 Republican's voted against the Dingle amendment last night. Were these 40+ Republicans just voting against any form of gun-control at all or were they going to vote for the competing amendment which was the 72-hour waiting period on any sales for background checks? We may never know, since the Dingle amendment shelved the Democrat's version. To ferret out these Republicans, an amendment should be offered that contains language that would doom it to failure, but would include a 72-hour waiting period of checks and see what Republicans vote for it. Anyway, join the NRA if you aren't already a member. They seemed to have made the difference by 7 votes this time around. Let's see how the rest of it goes today. Keep your fingers crossed.

TinMan99

[wayne]

Why are all of the media saying congress voted to make it easier to buy at gunshows when it does make it harder for certain sellers?

[zanzibar]

HAH! You even need to ask? The media spins this as a decrease in gun control (when all it really is, is a less onerous increase than the senate voted for) so they can portray the big bad NRA and their lackeys in congress as loosening laws just when they need to be tightened (recent tragedy, blah blah blah)

Same way they spin republicans (smaller) increases in spending, as cuts just because they are smaller increases than the democrates originally wanted.

Most Americans are too stupid to know the difference or question the media's misinformation.

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A piece in the paper today stated that firearms and ammo sales have sky rocketed and the N.R.A.'s phones are ringing off the hook with people wanting to join,both because of fear of pending legislation.The article was entitled "Unintended consequences".I guess this is what it takes to get people off thier butts.Don't just write your representatives,write your local paper,and call into radio talk shows too!Make your voice heard!