The Sandy Hook Elementary School monstrous massacre
guaranteed that the heat will be turned up on President Obama to take the
"meaningful action" that he called for on gun control. The heat is justified,
but it's not the White House that has routinely killed life-saving gun control
measures during the past decade. It's been Congress.
The
spectacular scope and magnitude of the congressional wipe out is barely known
to the public, in part because the eighteen bills introduced never got out of a
house or senate committee, and in greater part because they have been so
routinely and cavalierly dumped that they drew only the barest mention if any
in the press. In short, much of the public knew not a whit about these bills
and their sponsors did little to publicly make the public aware that the bills
even existed. There is one exception to this blackout. That is the Gun Owners
of America. They meticulously chronicled the introduction of each bill, and
kept a hawk like watch on each one to make sure that it never saw the light of
a house or full senate vote.
Here's the complete checklist of the gun control bills
that were introduced in the past decade that would have put tougher
restrictions on various aspects of gun sales and on who could get them. All were
DOA in Congress.
H.R. 45 : This bill would require a license for handguns
and semiautomatics, including those currently possessed. The applicant must be
thumb printed and sign a certification that, effectively, the firearm will not
be kept in a place where it would be available for the defense of the gun
owner's family. The applicant must also make available ALL of his psychiatric
records, pass an exam, and pay a fee of up to $25.
H.R. 197 : This bill would establish national standards
for concealed carry reciprocity, but would not protect residents of pro-gun
states like Vermont and Alaska which do not require paper permits.
H.R. 256 : This bill would, among other things, impose a
ten-year prison sentence (a life sentence if death or kidnapping results) for
using a firearm to cause bodily injury on the basis of race, color, religion,
or national origin.
H.R. 257 : This bill would take the already Byzantine
restrictions on teaching your kids the responsible use of firearms and extend
them from handguns to semi-autos; increase the age of applicability from 18 to
21; and increase potential penalties to up to 10 years in prison.
H.R. 808: This bill would create a Department of Peace, which would be
tasked with, among other things, analyzing policies with respect to "tools of violence,
including handguns."
H.R. 1684 : This bill would codify the Bush
Administration's regulations concerning guns in National Parks.
H.R. 1913 : This bill would impose a 10-year prison
sentence for a simple "attempt" to cause bodily injury if a firearm was
involved.
H.R. 1923 : The Fairness in Firearms Testing Act bill
will require that an unedited video be recorded during the testing of a firearm
to determine if it is a machine gun.
H.R. 2159: This bill would allow Eric Holder to declare
any person a "prohibited person" (revoke licenses of, etc.) if he
"suspects" that individual of aiding terrorism. Given recent
disclosures that the government regards pro-lifers, pro-gun advocates,
veterans, and other conservatives as potential terrorists, this has to be
regarded with some alarm.
H.R. 2296: The bill would allow Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms to impose, for the first time, civil penalties on federal firearms
licensees.
H.R. 2324: This bill is a reincarnation of the
year-after-year effort to effectively ban gun shows by allowing them to be
regulated and inspected to an unlimited extent. In addition, any gun show
sponsor would be subject to up to two years in prison if he failed to notify
every single attendee of his responsibilities under the Brady Law.
S. 632: This bill would provide that the manufacturer's excise tax on
recreational equipment be paid quarterly.
S. 843 : This bill would effectively abolish gun shows.
It would require registration, unlimited inspection requirements, unlimited
record-keeping requirements and an uncapped fee of potentially any amount.
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