House Democrats to propose universal background checks for gun sales

The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives plans to introduce legislation next Tuesday to mandate background checks on all gun sales – essentially this bill would extend background checks to guns sold at gun shows.

This is permissible within the scope of Antonin Scalia’s decision in Heller – the decision that revised Second Amendment Jurisprudence by creating the right to keep handguns in one’s home for purposes of defense. To quote from Scalia’s decision, “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited … Nothing in our opinion today should be taken to cast doubt on … laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

Let’s try to divide into two groups: those who support such legislation and those who oppose such legislation. I am interested in hearing reasons and constitutional justification from both sides.

I would ask for a serious discussion of this. There’s no need to insist that the 2ndAmendment does not allow any “infringement” because no judge (including Scalia) has ever read the 2ndAmendment to mean that. Please also avoid claims that this will lead inevitably to gun confiscation; because no one with any political clout is suggesting that.

If you are curious about the ellipses in my quote and whether that allowed me to quote Scalia out of context, let me explain. I have tried to reflect Scalia’s judgment accurately. What I eliminated was the enumeration of other conditions where Scalia said the right to bear arms may be restricted that seemed to dilute the focus of the House’s proposal on sales.

My expectation is that Mitch McConnell will not allow this to come to a vote. If he did, I am not sure how the Senate would vote. Were they to pass it, it is certainly possible President Trump would sign it. His administration banned bump stocks – the first federal weaponry restriction in decades – with barely a whimper from the NRA. However, given that McConnell will probably not allow a vote, I suspect this bill is a message from the Democratic Party leadership to the American people about what they can expect if they give the Democrats power over more branches of government.

Good luck!

2 Likes

It’s a popular idea among most Americans, but McConnell will never bring it up for a vote. He’s afraid of having his caucus having to explain their vote to their constituents. Something like 90% of Americans support this.

https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/oct/03/chris-abele/do-90-americans-support-background-checks-all-gun-/

More tyranny of the minority from repubs.

1 Like

Unfortunately, I don’t think McConnell will allow a vote.

Although I do think trump would sign it.

No it’s not.

75%-90% of all Americans support universal background checks for gun sales. That’s most.

3 Likes

No they don’t. Go ask them if they want to have to run a background check and pay double for their own sons.

Most Americans don’t know what an assault rifle is, much less current gun laws.

Las Vegas passed numerous background checks.

Stockpiling? How is a background check going to stop that?

You mean to tell me that someone asked all 90% of the Legal American Citizens whether or not they want background checks for all gun sales? I don’t buy that for a split second. Polls are NOT accurate. That was proven by the 2016 presidential election. Why is that people who are for gun control, background checks, etc never address the issue of punishing the criminals who use weapons (of all kinds) in the commission of any crime? Why is it that they only seem to want to punish the law-abiding citizens? Why is it that the leftists care more about the rights of criminals than they do the rights of law-abiding citizens? Why do so many people have loads f sympathy for criminals but virtually NONE for the victims of criminals?

By finding the pattern of someone stockpiling, like the Vegas shooter did. Don’t treat each sale as a unique event; look for patterns. Even better would be cross-referencing with legal records, such as restraining orders. It would be useful to cross-reference with medical records (mental illness) but I don’t believe the HIPAA privacy registrations would allow that.

How does a background check show a pattern of stockpiling? Are you claiming there’s a registry?

Don’t be naive. Any credit card purchase is registered. I work in Big Data. Do you think a data scientist needs a government gun registry to find your guns? That’s silly.

Have you heard the PPL company. They’re a start-up with data on three BILLION people and counting. And new start-ups soaking up databases are launched weekly. Finding gun owners who have not stolen their guns is child’s play. People use the same aliases all over the net. It’s easy to get a whole series of dbs, cross-reference for who posts pro-guns, who posts on gun owner forums.

The notion that gun owners couldn’t be found… that ship sailed a few years ago.

Sorry.

So exactly how many guns does it take to warrant calling it a stockpile? And do you advocate that people be limited in how many guns they can own, period? How about limiting the number of hammers, knives, ice picks, arrows, etc. How about how many vehicles you can own, how much of each chemical that could be used in making a bomb? Where does it all end?

Don’t buy it for a second. Here’s a few points.

Guns sold at gun shows already require a background check. So that point is false.

What they are referring to are private sales. Whether it’s at a gun show or out in a parking lot, there’s no way to require background checks on these sales UNLESS:

You have a national gun registry. They can’t know you sold a gun unless they know you own one, so without a registry, universal background checks are toothless.

Polling for a national gun registry is abysmally low.

You want the system to work better? Focus on mental health providers having to report mentally unstable people to the NICS system.

2 Likes

Also adding that a national firearms registry has been ruled unconstitutional.

Without it you can’t have universal background checks.

Find another way.

Ridiculous. There’s no need to have a gun registry to require universal background checks. That’s just a scare tactic.

Probably 10 states already require background checks on private as well as dealer sales.

Really?

I own 12 guns.

The govt knows about none of them.

How do they know if I sold one without doing a background check?

I own about the same number of guns. The government “knows” about maybe half of them.

You assume that the government needs to know the disposition of every gun in order for a law to have force.

There’s not a national registry of murders, yet we still have laws against it. There’s not a national registry of tax cheating events, yet we still have laws against it.

Being armed is not a crime, murder and tax cheating is.