El Presidente issued his executive orders. As expected it’s mostly hot air:
… Require gun dealers, whether they sell in a store, at gun shows or over the internet, to conduct background checks on those wanting to purchase a firearm …
This is already law.
… The order will require people purchasing [NFA] weapons through trusts or other legal entities to undergo a background check …
Don’t know much about the NFA, but pretty sure this is already done.
… Attorney General Loretta Lynch has written a letter to states urging them to provide complete information, such as criminal history, to the federal database that’s used for background checks …
Why not send them a letter urging everyone to be awesome?
… To speed up and modernize NICS, the order directs the FBI to hire more than 230 staffers – a move that would double staff size – and complete technical updates to the database …
All this will likely do is speed up gun purchases which are way up under his administration.
… Dealers are required to report lost or stolen weapons from their inventory but the laws related to guns that go missing during transit aren’t as clear. Under the new order, the licensee shipping the gun will be responsible for reporting it missing or stolen …
I don’t think this does much of anything.
… The White House is proposing to spend $500 million for increased mental healthcare services. Other provisions include reporting of Social Security information to the background check system, a move designed to keep those with mental health issues or who receive disability payments due to mental impairment from purchasing firearms …
NRA covered this several months back. I suspect either legislative or legal action will kill this.
… The president is issuing a memorandum to … increase research into gun safety technology. The memo also directs the agencies to promote the use and acquisition of new firearm technology …
Isn’t much this already being done for government purchases when they replace/upgrade inventory? Any smart gun nonsense is not going to be funded by Congress.
… The White House said the president’s 2017 budget will include funding for 200 new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents to enforce gun laws. Another $4 million will go towards enhancements to the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, which tracks evidence that can be used to link gun-related crimes …
This looks like a whole lot of nothing.
The antis are not happy about this. See this op-ed at the Huffington Post, “Obama’s Executive Actions On Gun Control May Not Do Much. But He’s Doing More Than Congress.“
I don’t understand what our side is doing on the nics check narrative. Its totally wrong, and nobody with half a brain believes us. It should be made clear what our objective is: we don’t want a national or any other registry of guns. We are dancing around that issue, and it is destroying our credibility. So we [should] propose a compromise that if all transactions are subject to nics check, fine [we don’t want crazy people having guns either], but no paper trail of serial number, type, or anything else. Not in the store either. That is what the present system would do, and it is unconstitutional. They would have to catch people in the act, but so what. That is how 95% of crime is solved.
The universal nics check WOULD make it SLIGHTLY harder to traffic guns to crimminals. It would not stop the “regular guy” whose life spun out of control and has just totally lost all his shit. Those all pass nics. And if they go to a “gun free” zone they can do all the horrific damage they want with any cartridge fed, repeating firearm technology (like a 150+ year old Henry) all fucking day until the cops get there cause nobody else can stop them. So everything else is bullshit.
Abolishing NICS is not on the table right now.
Jacob, my comment is not objecting to NICS. Thats OK cause it is the actual check. And that is supposed to evaporate after like 20 something days. What is objectionable [at least to me] is the paperwork left in the store with the gun info and your info forever. That is the defacto registration.
NICS? The murderous gangbangers of Chicago have never heard of it. Of course, that’s understandable, because they’re so busy shooting twenty or thirty people a weekend, that they just don’t have time for background checks. Obama is a joke.