House lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled their first bipartisan bill targeting gun violence in this Congress: a measure to make firearms trafficking a federal crime.
Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Scott Rigell (R-Va.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)
Article is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/gun-control-bill_n_2624644.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
This is another useless and misguided attempt to strengthen laws on straw purchases when the existing violations aren't even prosecuted. This is useless window dressing and posturing under the pretense of bipartanism.
The NRA has not come out against it yet, but I'm sure they will.
Oppose this bill on Popvox: https://www.popvox.com/
My letter to the bill sponsors is below:
Representative xxx:
I applaud your effort to craft a bipartisan bill to reduce gun violence; however I’m left wondering where the real benefits are in this bill based on what I’ve read so far.
The fact remains that nothing in the bill would have prevented the tragedies we just went through. There is nothing in there that will demonstratively reduce violent crime. This makes the bill very difficult for me to support.
The core issue is not about guns, but about violent crime. Urban areas with populations over 200K have twice the violent crime rate of other areas in the country. If more law abiding urban citizen exercised their 2nd amendment right and had the legal ability to conceal carry, the violent crime rate would be lower in these areas. This is a well-documented fact. Over time you would see the violent crime rate decrease because the criminals would not know who the easy victims were.
More concealed carry would not completely solve the problem though- poverty reduction, education opportunities, mental health issues and family values also need to be included. More than half of all gun deaths in America are suicides. A majority of the remaining gun deaths are from the inner cities, where gang activities and drug violence is rampant. Family values are virtually nonexistent in the inner cities. How many criminals come from homes where the father and mother are still together? These are the kind of issues that I would happily work with people across the aisle to improve.
Your proposed bill would impose up to 20 years in jail for "straw purchasers," or those who buy guns for people prohibited from buying them on their own. This is basically pretty useless.
It is already a federal felony to be engaged in the business of buying and selling firearms without having a federal dealer's license. It is already a crime for a federally licensed dealer to sell a gun without doing a background check--that's all dealers, everywhere, whether at retail stores or gun shows. Further, it is already a federal felony to sell, trade, give, lend, rent or transfer a gun to a person you know or should know is not legally allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. It is even a federal felony to submit false information on a background check form for the purpose of purchasing a firearm, though Vice President Biden does not think it's worth the government's time to prosecute these criminal acts. He said this himself.
Please spend your time focusing on the resolving the core issues of violent crime instead of esoteric legislation that essentially duplicates laws that are already on the books but not enforced.
Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Scott Rigell (R-Va.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)
Article is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/gun-control-bill_n_2624644.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
This is another useless and misguided attempt to strengthen laws on straw purchases when the existing violations aren't even prosecuted. This is useless window dressing and posturing under the pretense of bipartanism.
The NRA has not come out against it yet, but I'm sure they will.
Oppose this bill on Popvox: https://www.popvox.com/
My letter to the bill sponsors is below:
Representative xxx:
I applaud your effort to craft a bipartisan bill to reduce gun violence; however I’m left wondering where the real benefits are in this bill based on what I’ve read so far.
The fact remains that nothing in the bill would have prevented the tragedies we just went through. There is nothing in there that will demonstratively reduce violent crime. This makes the bill very difficult for me to support.
The core issue is not about guns, but about violent crime. Urban areas with populations over 200K have twice the violent crime rate of other areas in the country. If more law abiding urban citizen exercised their 2nd amendment right and had the legal ability to conceal carry, the violent crime rate would be lower in these areas. This is a well-documented fact. Over time you would see the violent crime rate decrease because the criminals would not know who the easy victims were.
More concealed carry would not completely solve the problem though- poverty reduction, education opportunities, mental health issues and family values also need to be included. More than half of all gun deaths in America are suicides. A majority of the remaining gun deaths are from the inner cities, where gang activities and drug violence is rampant. Family values are virtually nonexistent in the inner cities. How many criminals come from homes where the father and mother are still together? These are the kind of issues that I would happily work with people across the aisle to improve.
Your proposed bill would impose up to 20 years in jail for "straw purchasers," or those who buy guns for people prohibited from buying them on their own. This is basically pretty useless.
It is already a federal felony to be engaged in the business of buying and selling firearms without having a federal dealer's license. It is already a crime for a federally licensed dealer to sell a gun without doing a background check--that's all dealers, everywhere, whether at retail stores or gun shows. Further, it is already a federal felony to sell, trade, give, lend, rent or transfer a gun to a person you know or should know is not legally allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. It is even a federal felony to submit false information on a background check form for the purpose of purchasing a firearm, though Vice President Biden does not think it's worth the government's time to prosecute these criminal acts. He said this himself.
Please spend your time focusing on the resolving the core issues of violent crime instead of esoteric legislation that essentially duplicates laws that are already on the books but not enforced.
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