Two is one, one is none.
Democrats in congress are stealing that old Navy SEAL principle and applying it to . . . well, gun control.
In the most devious move seen in the 116th Congress to date (and it’s February), Democrats have introduced H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019.
The bills’ titles are prepared for media consumption as “reasonable” measures to stop firearms from getting the “wrong” hands.
But when combined, the Bills have the ability to stop all firearms sales (new and used) for seven months out of the year.
Let me dive in a bit and explain how this works.
H.R. 8 with only a few exceptions, bans the private transfer of firearms. If you want to sell your old Mossberg to your neighbor, off to the local gun shop you go to handle the transaction.
After digging into the personal life history of your friendly neighbor with a check into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), money and Mossbergs can change hands.
H.R. sounds “reasonable” to the moderate that falls for the old Gun Show Loophole scare tactic and as such, Republicans will be pressured to vote for the measure as will the Senate.
Now enter H.R. 1112, introduced this month by Democrat Rep. James Clyburn.
Clyburn introducing this bill is not by coincidence. The congressman is from South Carolina and if you recall back in 2015, mentally deranged Dylann Roof murdered nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
H.R. 1112 is nicknamed the “Charleston Loophole Bill”.
The stated intent of the Charleston Bill is to prevent further murderous hate crimes by strengthening the mental health provisions in background checks.
Anyone who opposes it will likely be sneered at with racial accusation.
But it only pays lip service to mental health if you read the bill.
What H.R. 1112 really does is fiddle around with response times of NICS.
Currently, the Feds have three days to return the background check when a firearm is purchased. If three days lapse with no return, the seller may move forward with the transaction.
The Charleston Bill extends the time to 10 business days. After that, the BUYER has to . . . get this . . . petition the FBI.
After another 10 business days, if the FBI doesn’t approve or deny the request, the seller can move forward with the transactions.
So that’s a total of 20 business days if you don’t include an extra “petition day”, which is likely.
Twenty business days, right? No big deal for a moderate, right? Sure.
But here’s the catch.
The NICS check that pulled the request on the first day of the purchase is only valid for 30 calendar days.
Stay with me now. We’re talking business days and calendar days.
So if we assume that the purchase day is the first day of the month and take out federal holidays, only five months exist that include 20 business days within 30 calendar days.
January, April, May, August and October.
It would be “safe” to purchase a firearm only five months of the year if you were Johnny-on-the-spot with your FBI petition.
Now of course, those numbers have to be crunched for all 365 days of the each year, but as it stands, if the Feds wanted to lock down the transfer of new and used firearms for seven months of the year, this new legislation appears to allow it.
And imagine the impact to the Firearms Industry if it was literally closed for 70% of the year.
There would be on Firearms Industry.
If H.R. 1112 were to pass by itself, private transfers could still move forward in 28 states that have no restrictions.
But when combined, H.R. 1112 and H.R. 8 give the Federal government the ability stop all firearms sales for the majority of the year.
Two is one, one is none.
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