Senator Grassley Defends Constitution on NPR

[Dean Weingarten]

I heard Senator Charles Grassley on the Weekend Edition Sunday show of National Public Radio. I expected that he would buckle, and at least leave the door open for "universal background checks" as a way to appease the statists and move us toward universal gun registration. I was wrong.

Senator Grassley surprised me by standing up to the MSM bullies. He did not say "we have to do *something*". He did not say *for the children*. He was smart. He did not fall for their implied assumptions that more unconstitutional infringements mean more safety.

He was willing to look at making sure that felons who attempted to purchase guns illegally in the current system, were forwarded to the FBI for prosecution. This was an indirect and effective way to say that we are not even using the system we have, so why make an even bigger system to do less? If pushed, he could have mentioned that there were only 77 prosecutions out of 72,000 background check denials in 2009, and they resulted in only 32 convictions.

He was willing to look at ways to get more information on people with mental problems into the FBI database, but worried about privacy concerns.

He was not willing to support "universal background checks". He addressed the intrusive nature of such a system by mentioning that he could not support requiring a father to submit to a background check to give a rifle to his son. He mentioned that background checks would be ineffective, because they would not stop the theft of firearms, as happened in Newtown. Lastly, he said that we have to treat the Second Amendment with as much care as we treat the First Amendment. He said that we would like to put limits on violent movies, but even though we know they have an effect on young people, we do not, because of the First Amendment, and we have to treat the Second Amendment with the same level of respect.

This was brilliant. He also stated that he could not support an assault weapon ban, because we already tried that, and it did not work from 1994 to 2004.

I was and am impressed. It was gratifying to see a senator stand up to the MSM. It was doubly impressive because he is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Link to NPR audio

Link to Source with Background Check numbers

Dean Weingarten

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/02/senator-grassley-defends-constitution.html

 

[Sniper66]

Dean,

Thank you for the thoughtful post. The points made are so simple and so easy to understand. This is the argument we should all be using everywhere we go and whenever we get the chance.

 

[HorseSoldier]

That's a good point raised about the lack of enforcement on current background checks. Seems like there was a thread about this a while back that had statistics that there were in excess of 10,000 sales to felons prohibited last year by NICS checks, and something like a total of 50 prosecutions for the attempted crime. I'm guessing that, given those numbers, there probably weren't any felons currently on probation who were revoked for attempting to become a felon-in-possession at all, which is another avenue they should perfect enforcement on before trying to figure out new laws to toss on the books.

 

[chris in va]

Careful about those denial numbers. Many are caused by identity confusion and glitches.

 

[gc70]

Careful about those denial numbers. Many are caused by identity confusion and glitches.

A detailed Justice Department report showed the FBI referred 78,906 NICS denials to the ATF for investigation in 2008. A total of 39 individuals were prosecuted and pleaded guilty or were convicted of 43 charges.

Assume that NICS is wrong 99% of the time and there would still have been 789 valid denials in 2008, with a resulting conviction rate of less than 5% of that ridiculously low number. Any way you look at the issue, the government is simply not making any serious effort to punish prohibited persons from attempting to buy guns.

 

[Dean Weingarten]

Another way to look at it is that 99 plus percent of denials result in American Citizens being denied their Constitutional rights. Unacceptable.

A right delayed is a right denied.

 

[Ryanxia]

Good for him, glad there is hope.