In what Congress-watchers call a "stunning breakthrough," the powerful National Rife Association and Senior Democrats on Capitol Hill have cut a deal that will strengthen background checks on those buying firearms.
Called a "marriage of convenience," the deal marks an unusual alliance between traditional enemies in the longtime battle over federal gun control legislation.
Writes Jonathan Weisman of The Washington Post:
Senior Democrats have reached agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.
The sensitive talks began in April, days after a mentally ill gunman killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech University. The shooter, Seung Hui Cho, had been judicially ordered to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, which should have disqualified him from buying handguns. But the state of Virginia never forwarded that information to the federal National Instant Check System (NICS), and the massacre exposed a loophole in the 13-year-old background-check program.
Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date, as well as penalties for failing to comply.
To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators in weeks of painstaking talks. Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records. The federal government would be permanently barred from charging gun buyers or sellers a fee for their background checks. In addition, faulty records such as duplicative names or expunged convictions would have to be scrubbed from the database.
"The NRA worked diligently with the concerns of gun owners and law enforcement in mind to make a . . . system that's better for gun owners and better for law enforcement," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), a former NRA board member, who led the talks.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) had been pushing similar legislation for years. But her reputation as a staunch opponent of the gun lobby — she came to Congress to promote gun control after her husband was gunned down in a massacre on the Long Island Rail Road — ruined any chance of a deal with the NRA.
By contrast, this agreement is a marriage of convenience for both sides. Democratic leaders are eager to show that they can respond legislatively to the Virginia Tech rampage, a feat that GOP leaders would not muster after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Meanwhile, the NRA was motivated to show it would not stand in the way of a bill that would not harm law-abiding gun buyers. Even so, it drove a hard bargain to quiet its smaller but more vociferous rival, Gun Owners of America, which has long opposed McCarthy's background-check bill.
15 thoughts on “Democrats cut deal with NRA over guns”
What have you got the ass at? Bad dreams, or Veterans?
Do you think that if a Veteran has a bad dream then the tri-lettered storm-troopers need to kick down his door, and collect all the guns? What a fucked up mind you’ve got!
So according to you the people who actually went out and fought for our country have to give up the freedoms they risked their very lives to defend? Are you even looking at what you post here?
I wonder how it would go down if Freedom of Religion was treated like The Freedom to Keep and Bear Arms? You’ve got the freedom to join, and participate in a religion, it’s just if it’s not the “right” religion, then you have to… Oh, I don’t know…Say…Wear a badge proclaiming yourself to be part of that religion? Or maybe you have to live in a certain place with others practicing that religion. Or register with The State so the cops know where to go when members of your religion get picked for the kicking? Didn’t they try that in this little European country back in the late ’30’s, or early ’40’s?
Oh that’s wrong, you say!!! Oh that’s UnAmerican you say!!! Well just what the fuck is different from that and the hoops that gun owners have to jump through just to own a gun!
The threat of armed resistance keeps the politicians, if not honest, then at least mostly harmless. Because We The People can defend ourselves from tyranny, tyranny goes where the fight is not so strong!
We like it that way! It’s worked well so far!
Stoney Browning
Look, you whiny-assed busy-bodies trying to take my guns away, if you hate guns SO much then carry your asses off to a country that doesn’t have any!
This is AMERICA damn it! We BELIEVE in the right to keep and bear arms, and if that upsets you, then tough shit!
Your ilk is the reason that millions of Americans are sitting in prison for smoking a green weed that never hurt a soul!
Thanks to idiots like you my son who is old enough to be drafted and sent off to die for his country, isn’t considered old enough to have a beer with his dad!
Murph gave some damned good arguments against the type of gun control you haters want. I agree whole-heartedly with them! To me gun control means hitting what you aim at!
Enough of this Nanny-state bullshit! Your not going to turn this country into your own delusional view of “Sesame Street” where noone stains their precious, pink panties because a dirty-bad-nasty gun shot startled them!
We like our guns, and you can’t have them!!! Get over it!
Stoney Browning
Just what has changed? The way I read it, we just made it easier for certain people to buy a gun. What has the NRA given up? Not a damned thing. What are we debating here. Have a doctor write a note, He’s not crazy anymore, sell him a gun. I’m a Veteran, I use to have bad dreams but, not any more, sell me a gun.
Oh wait, it’s the Shop Owner that gets it. I’m up to date, give me my money.
I would really like to know, just what the Democrats think they have done or accomplished? It makes a nice Headline but, the story is mush, bottem line, there will be more guns sold, on the streets and in homes.
The gun seller will get richer and the NRA will have more members. As for Gun Control, it got weaker. This was a one sided concession.
Taking One Day at a Time
Gun control people simply don’t get it.
Gun controls by themselves do not work in the way they are intended, namely to reduce violence and death by guns.
Guns in the hands of civilians keep the government on edge and for good reason.
If you like gun control so much, go where it is instituted with a vengence. Bet you are the same people that advocate that if you don’t like our country, go somewhere else.
Upchuckker;
Get your facts and conclusions straight before you rant on. You think gun suicide is the only way to go? What next, eliminate duct tape and plastic bags? Get real!
You forgot in your stats the amount of gun deaths that were prevented by armed civilians. Actually, it is quite extensive. Look it up and see for yourself.
Where in this world did you get this crap about popular belief? “FACT: Contrary to popular belief, young children do possess the physical strength to fire a gun: 25% of 3-to-4-year-olds, 70% of 5-to-6-year-olds, and 90% of 7-to-8-year-olds can fire most handguns.†I was taught to use a gun at the age of 7, if I remember rightly. So what? You want to talk about stupidity in child gun use, read about the 11 year old using a .50 cal handgun to shoot a 1000 lb. pig. Bones not developed at that age and the recoil on those pistols is ferocious. I really wonder how that gun is affecting his wrists. You want to bitch about stupid parents, start there.
“Opinion: Go ahead and push the “Right to Own a Gun”. But shut your stupid mouths about it being a “good” thing. We’re a wanton killing nation. War and killing define the bestial us. Welcome to the most “enlightened” nation on earth.†Go back and get your stats right before you offer another opinion without weight. You want to see violent societies, go see Africa. You want real violence, check out Iraq. The sarcasm you offered about “most enlightened nation on earth†is dead on, but not for your reasons.
I sure would like for you to start pointing to where you think your gun elimination would or has worked. Another thing you should consider, there are statistics that completely refute yours. But then again, I don’t buy your assumptions to begin with.
Even Steven, right on. I have had 3 armed confrontations in my life so far. Thank god for Ruger.
So, the NRA compromised with anti-gun lawmakers.
Surprise, surprise. The NRA is not really pro-gun. They have supported numerous gun restrictions at the federal and state levels.
There were at least 20,000 federal gun laws on the books in 2000, per Harry Browne, Libertarian for President in 1996 and 2000. Bush, who NRA supported (even endorsed, I am not sure), said in his acceptance speech at the 2000 GOP convention that he would enforce every one of those laws on the books then. The Convention roared its approval. I made the mistake of trying to eat during that nauseating speech.
The NRA, the GOP and Bush are all solidly for gun control, let’s face it. Maybe not to the extent of some of these loony-tunes, but they are far into gun-control territory.
And, let’s face something else: Every one of these laws is unconstitutional. The Second Amendment says what it means and means what it says.
These people claim to support the Constitution. I think they had better study it again.
JPFO and Ron Paul, and Libertarian contender Steve Kubby are right. All federal gun laws must go. We’d all be better off.
Why belabor all the reasons to allow guns; these have almost become cliches, as true as they are. Guns are inanimate objects. We need to control criminals, not objects. The police cannot be everywhere (thank God). Etc.
The thing is, to own real and personal property is a God-given right. If you buy, make or find something that does not rightfully belong to someone else, it’s yours. A hunk of metal fashioned into a self-defense impliment is no different. If you have to get permission to own that, then they could make you get permission to own anything. And they do. Cars, dogs, even cats have to be registered. What’s next? Knives? Fertilizer? Alcoholic beverages? Cigarettes? Already you have to reach a certain age for Big Brother to permit you to obtain certain things. And I have to grovel to federally-annointed pharmacists to get a product the doctor recommended.
It is as though government officials were *better* than you are if you cannot unilaterally decide what to go out and buy, or to make, and have to grovel to them for permission. Or, if a parent cannot decide what a child or young adult living at home can have.
Gun control is actually everything control.
This isn’t freedom.
This isn’t a free country.
I want to live one day in a free country before I die just to see what it’s like, but it does not look very good.
Alice Lillie
https://www.alicelillieandher.blogspot.com
The NRA is a criminal protection racket that was taken over by the gun industry long ago. It is the mythology built around guns that is the real problem. And, no one addresses that. Guns are just plain lousy protection in a society that is saturated with fools who own them. Look at Iraq. The perfect case in point.
John Hanks, Laramie, Wyoming
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