Thirteen Reasons Why Congress Should Oppose Universal Background Checks

— Biggest concern relates to gun registration and confiscation

Can we really trust the administration that gave us Fast & Furious to respect our Second Amendment rights?

Recent articles in the liberal media have suggested that setting up a framework for gun registration and confiscation -– the so-called “universal background check” –- is somehow less insidious than other gun control proposals currently on the table.

Anyone who believes this is delusional.  Here are thirteen reasons why the “universal background check” is the most insidious gun control of all:

FIRST:  The principle that no American can own a firearm without getting the go-ahead from the government is offensive to Americans.  We don’t require breathalyzer checks before people get into their cars even though drunk drivers kill more than 30 times more people than “assault rifles” do. Nor do we require background checks on clubs and hammers, which also kill more often than “assault rifles.”[i]

SECOND:  Universal background checks would not have stopped Adam Lanza (who stole his guns), or James Holmes or Jared Loughner (who passed background checks).

THIRD: One of the nation’s leading anti-gun medical publications, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that the Brady law has failed to reduce murder rates.  In August 2000, JAMA reported that states implementing waiting periods and background checks did “not [experience] reductions in homicide rates or overall suicide rates.”[ii]

FOURTH:  Increasingly, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms is illegally going into gun dealers and xeroxing all of the 4473’s -– a practice which represents the beginnings of a national gun registry.

FIFTH:  The FBI refuses to tell us how or whether it is complying with the Smith and Tiarht amendments prohibiting Brady names from being kept for a national gun registry.

SIXTH:  Germany just set up a national gun registry, based on index cards kept at 551 locations throughout the country –- cards not dissimilar to the 4473’s which every American gun buyer would be required to fill out under a Universal Background Check system.

SEVENTH:  The NICS list currently contains the names of more than 150,000 law-abiding veterans who didn’t do anything wrong (but honorably served their country and then sought counseling for their wartime experiences) -– and could soon contain tens of millions of names of Medicaid patients with post partem depression, IDEA students with ADHD, and soldiers, police, and firemen with PTSD.

EIGHTH:  Anyone who doesn’t believe a national gun registry leads to national gun confiscation should consider the confidential memorandum advocating confiscation and circulated by New York Democrats prior to their most recent round of New York gun control.[iii]

NINTH:  Even under current demands, the Brady system is constantly breaking down -– for example, shutting off many purchases on Black Friday, a day when there were massive numbers of gun purchases which were effectively blocked.

TENTH:  Many sellers in very rural areas would find it a great hardship to travel hundreds of miles, accompanied by their purchasers, in order to make a sale in a licensed dealer’s place of business.  This inconvenience for rural sellers would be even more significant if, as happens 10% of the time, the purchase –- usually for no reason at all -– is not immediately approved.

ELEVENTH:  In a significant number of current transactions, purchases are held up for no reason other than the fact that the seller’s name is similar to someone else’s name.  Often, these botch-ups permanently block gun purchases when (1) the FBI’s response remains non-committal after three days, (2) the gun dealer refuses to sell based on a non-committal response, despite the language of the Brady Law, and (3) the FBI’s response is “sue us.”

TWELFTH:  Can we really trust the administration that gave us Fast & Furious to respect our Second Amendment rights?  The Obama Administration knowingly approved (via background checks) the sales of thousands of guns to the Mexican Cartel in order to justify calls for greater gun control here at home.  As a result, several hundred Mexicans have been killed — not to mention at least one U.S. federal agent.  Considering the administration’s record on guns, the administration should NOT be trusted to keep guns out of the “wrong hands.”  Isn’t this the fox guarding the hen house?

THIRTEENTH:  Let’s be honest:  Universal background checks are nothing more than the ineffectual platform from which gun haters will make their next set of demands, based on the next horrific tragedy.