2A Newsletter: March 12th

House Passes Two Anti-gun Bills

On March 11th, the house was presented and passed two bills that do nothing but criminalize law-abiding gun owners. The house passed HR 1446 with a vote of 219-21 and HR 8 was passed 227-203. These bills infringe on the legal right to own a gun and only make it harder for citizens who wish to defend themselves against crime to gain access to their 2A right. 

The first vote was on HR 8, which establishes background check requirements for firearm transfers between private parties. Specifically, it prohibits a firearm transfer between private parties unless a licensed gun dealer takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check. If you are not a licensed gun dealer, you may only transfer or gift your firearms to immediate family without having to run a background check. 

The second vote was on HR 1446, which increases the amount of time that a federal firearms license owner must wait to receive a completed background check from 3 business days to a minimum of 10 business days. Under this bill that was recently passed by the house, you may have to wait 20 business days to receive your firearm if the NICS system isn’t working. Now let's say you were in a bit of a situation and needed a firearm for self-defense. If you were to loan a firearm from a friend and use your friends gun to defend yourself, your friend would face a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.

These measures are now sent to the senate where it would need a significant amount of support from Republican's in order to overcome the legislative filibuster. Regardless, the legislation will remain as a high priority for the Biden's administration. 

Senate Pushes for Executive Action on 80% Ban

Four Democratic senators are calling on Biden to ban 80% lower receivers via executive action while they work up their own bill try to ban them legislatively.

Senators Robert Menendez, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal, and Ed Markey signed off on a letter to Biden urging him to take executive action to 'keep unserialized firearms off the street'. But that's not all, they are also requesting for the ATF to step in and regulate 80% Lower receivers as if they were firearms.

This isn't the first time Blumenthal led senators into introducing legislation to ban 80%'s. Just last year, he and 15 other senators introduced The Untraceable Firearms Act of 2020. This bill calls on amending the current definition of firearm by adding a definition for frame or receiver which would determine 80% lower receivers as a firearm. It would regulate 80% lower receivers and products as if they were completed firearms.

Meanwhile, Senator Diane Feinstein also announced her intention to revive the 1994 assault weapon ban. If you are not familiar with the 1994 assault weapon ban, also known as the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, was a bill that prohibited the sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons. The bill banned dozens of firearms and features that were deemed as lethal. This was even extended to large capacity magazines that held more than 10 rounds. This bill passed the house 235-195 and was signed into law by Bill Clinton in just one month but it expired on September 13, 2004.

Biden Adds Another Anti-Gun Cabinet Member

Biden announced that he will be adding U.S. Representative Deb Haaland to his cabinet who is yet another ant-gun politician. Rep Deb Haaland was first elected to Congress in 2018 where she has made it very known that she does not support the second amendment. Haaland had even co-sponsored legislation in 2019 that would ban ‘assault weapons’. She was also in favor of Universal background checks.A senate committee forwarded her nomination and she is expected to receive a final vote within a few weeks.

So far Biden's cabinet includes over 12 members that strongly oppose the second amendment. Let's review the worst of the bunch.

Xavier Becerra- While he is set to lead the US department of Health and Human resources, this former California Attorney General supported some of the strongest gun bans and restrictions in the state. He even sued the ATF into forcing federal action against 80% lower receivers.

Merrick Garland- As Bidens Attorney General-Designate, Garland had voted to allow the FBI to maintain a database of background check records. He also voted to allow prosecution of automatic firearms offenses without the prosecutor proving that they did not know the weapon is automatic which goes against a common requirement of criminal law that is often known as mens rea.

John Kerry- John Kerry has a very long history of being anti- gun. He has voted in support of 9 different assault weapon bans and is also in favor of banning center fire ammunition. He has the title of US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate,

Susan Rice- Serving as the Director of the Policy Council for the Biden Administration, Susan Rice is known for being very blunt about support for gun control. She has joined Everytown and Moms Demand Actions to discuss plans on how to address gun violence. Rice previously signed a letter in 2018 that was led by National Security Action stating that gun violence is a national security issue –– and calling for U.S. leaders to “ban assault weapons, mandate background checks and waiting periods, and raise the minimum age to purchase guns.”

Biden's cabinet is largely praised by many pro gun control groups and provides them with hope for a future with gun control. 

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