Senate Democrats Introduce Bill Requiring A Federal Firearms License To Buy And Own A Gun

It's going nowhere because a Constitutional right doesn't require a government license to exercise.

They just keep pushing...I wonder if they'll ever realize that we already HAVE a lot of guns. Their mothers should be so proud.

Shawn Dodson said:

It's going nowhere because a Constitutional right doesn't require a government license to exercise.

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What about states like Illinois which already require such a license?

That said, I agree it is unlikely to pass. I think it's mostly just so they can point and say they tried to do something.

Shawn Dodson said:

It's going nowhere because a Constitutional right doesn't require a government license to exercise.

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Um, then why do we require a license in order to actually bear the arms that we keep?

It's only going nowhere right now because of the balance in the Senate... We're only an election -- and a Supreme Court decision or two -- away from seeing more rights that some of us believe the Constitution has always affirmed, lost.

Frankly, what I'm seeing these days, especially in light of hits the Biden/Harris administration is taking along with the ineptitude of the Democrats in Congress, is hubris on the part of many in the RKBA movement.

We've won nothing yet. We've got nothing guaranteed yet.

It will never happen. Maintaining records would be absolutely staggering.

Blue Jays said:

It will never happen. Maintaining records would be absolutely staggering.

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Since when does any part of the U.S. government worry about labor-intensive and ridiculously expensive programs? Most Americans have no clue just how many redundant federal agencies, staggeringly bloated, all with virtually the same exact missions, we as taxpayers are funding. And I'm only talking about the administrative side. Then take a look at the law enforcement side: we started with the FBI, added BATFE, DEA, Treasury Department, Secret Service, DHS, NCIS, CID, forget what the Chair Force calls theirs... Oh, and look at how many intelligence agencies we have, starting with the CIA, NSA, DIA, and every single branch of the military (I dunno: does the Space Force have an intel agency yet?) has their own...

Aim1 said:

I could see Dems getting enough Republican votes to make this pass.

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Disagree, this has no chance of passing – it’s grist for slippery slope fallacies.

The far left of the Democratic Party appears to be convinced that they are losing popularity because they haven’t been radical enough. This is another case of their bat#### crazy.

In a way, I'm glad their mask is off and they are revealing their full agenda. There’s a percentage of our population that’s with them, but it appears that their numbers are dwindling as we more toward elections this year.

This won’t pass, but there will always be opponents of liberty.
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

No worries. A bill like this is not going to fly. They're playing politics for their constituents. Midterm hullabaloo is in full swing. The left has alienated so many of the groups that they exploited to pass gun control in the past, including law enforcement.

My state of Illinois is one of the few states that require a firearms ID (FOID) and they're talking about eliminating that. This is actually a good time for gun owners... the best I've seen. The trend is to eliminate red tape based on our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Any proposed federal law requiring registration and licensing is dead on arrival.

But don't get complacent. We've had a lot of victories in the courts. Keep fighting the good fight!

~ Beck

Once again, those urban blight New Jersey Senators make fools of themselves by proposing legislation that solves nothing. Instead they should be looking to address the issues of gang violence and illegal trafficking of drugs both of which are root problems to the violence we see a lot more often. Menendez was himself under indictment when he was last elected, and under investigation the first time he ran. Booker was mayor of Newark, enough said. I am embarrassed that we in NJ have allowed that element to become so powerful in State elections. My apologies to America.

Canada abandoned national registration of rifles and shotguns as hugely expensive with no measureable benefit.
Not only did criminals not comply (that is to be expected) but Canadian citizens held anti-registration rallies which included burning registration forms.

I'll just continue doing whatever I'm doing.

Ya'll can acquiesce to any new law, if you'd like to.

This has no chance of passage.

But, just as a thought experiment, let's say that an FFL was required to buy a gun. That means that FFL's would be issued to "amateurs" (those without business premises, store hours, local zoning compliance, etc.). The whole market for guns would become Internet-based, and brick-and-mortar gun shops would disappear. This would be like the days of the "kitchen table" FFL dealers, except on steroids. No distinction between a "dealer" and a "consumer."

As a side effect, the ATF would be overwhelmed. They would be absolutely unable to monitor the recordkeeping.

Aim1 said:

I could see Dems getting enough Republican votes to make this pass.

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Zero chance of any Republican support. This bill was introduced in a previous session and went nowhere. I'm guessing even Democratic Sen. Manchin will not support it. This is only for purposes of being seen to be "doing something".

AlexanderA said:

This has no chance of passage.

But, just as a thought experiment, let's say that an FFL was required to buy a gun. That means that FFL's would be issued to "amateurs" (those without business premises, store hours, local zoning compliance, etc.). The whole market for guns would become Internet-based, and brick-and-mortar gun shops would disappear. This would be like the days of the "kitchen table" FFL dealers, except on steroids. No distinction between a "dealer" and a "consumer."

As a side effect, the ATF would be overwhelmed. They would be absolutely unable to monitor the recordkeeping.

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I don't see the proposed license as being anything like a regular FFL. It would be more like a permit to buy from an FFL.

The amount of personnel necessary to carry this off would be staggering. And I don't doubt they would be in no rush to process permits, you just have to look at the delays in getting tax stamps for NFA items.

AlexanderA said:

As a side effect, the ATF would be overwhelmed. They would be absolutely unable to monitor the recordkeeping.

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That's true, but the people who would love to enact a law such as the proposed couldn't care less about that part. Do the people who run DHS care any whatsoever about the overwhelmed border? No. As they say, it's a feature, not a bug.

In fact, if the ATF were overwhelmed, they'd just use it to try to tighten up further.
High-profile dementia patient: "The ATF is so overwhelmed with stopping right-wing lawbreakers that today we are announcing that no further firearm transactions will be allowed until the ATF can work off some of the backlog and therefore comply with the duly-passed, bi-partisan [Romney, Collins, Cheney, Kinzinger, et. al.] law. And we're committing $150 billion to hire new ATF agents to fight the evil of illegal gun sales."

Blue Jays said:

It will never happen. Maintaining records would be absolutely staggering.

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Without a major paradigm shift it absolutely WILL happen. I will go so far as to say it will happen within our lifetime. The pro rights side has lost the Culture War. Joe McCarthy was right. Our government our education system and our industry leaders have been, for lack of a better term, infiltrated by Communists.

In about 20 years or sooner when all of our little L B G Q T u v w x y and z grandchildren are old enough to vote they will vote all of our rights away.

Naturally, this idea would come out of NJ; the first State in the Nation to implement a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card in 1966. Personally, I don't think it has a chance of passing and it surely would not pass Constitutional muster in light of Heller & McDonald. JMHO

Night Rider said:

Without a major paradigm shift it absolutely WILL happen. I will go so far as to say it will happen within our lifetime. The pro rights side has lost the Culture War. Joe McCarthy was right. Our government our education system and our industry leaders have been, for lack of a better term, infiltrated by Communists.

In about 20 years or sooner when all of our little L B G Q T u v w x y and z grandchildren are old enough to vote they will vote all of our rights away.

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Concur with the entirety of this post.

We've allowed the mainstream media to make the labels and frame the narratives.

We've lost some key battles lately. Disregard what's going on nationally -- we're losing state by state.

One word: Hubris.

The unintended consequences that would result from passage of this bill would be that this entire category of firearm restrictions would be challenged before the Supreme Court.
I don't think that the gun banners would like that... .

Shawn Dodson said:

It's going nowhere because a Constitutional right doesn't require a government license to exercise.

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I think that McDonald v. City of Chicago settled that a long time ago. Somebody is smoking crack.

States are passing way more gun control than congress has in the last 30 years. People need to wake up.

wiscoaster said:

I'm guessing even Democratic Sen. Manchin will not support it.

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There's a bunch of Democratic Senators that would not support it. If you want to know who they are, just look at the states they come from. I'll bet that even Mark Kelly (husband of Gabby Giffords!) would not vote for it. After all, he has to be elected in Arizona. Surely he knows that voting for gun control is electoral suicide in Arizona. (This also goes for Sinema, but she's not up until 2024.)

NJ’s Cory Booker represents a state that already requires a license to buy a long gun and ammunition, not to mention the dual permit system to purchase a handgun. The state uses a license system as a source of revenue and to enforce control across all state and municipal departments.

Just to get it on record again, the canoe I used to move my safes across the creek overturned and all my guns floated downstream and I never found them , all I have now is my CCW and I can get rid of it also.
I would hope the politicians are smart enough to realize this would be a lost cause and would cause a loss of votes the next election cycle since there is a lot of gun owners in every party