The limp and pointless Senate
measure to extend background checks to all sales made at gun shows
and personal sales that originate with online listings appears to
be losing steam. Democratic Senators from states where people
actually care about their self-defense rights appear to be
abandoning ship as they realize they’re putting their political
careers at risk in order to win nothing more than a political fig
leaf for the president. And Republicans who might safely vote to
gut the Second Amendment face enormous push-back from their pro-gun
colleagues. Whatever is a senator to do, except abandon the
worthless measure to its fate?
As Jacob Sullum has
pointed out, licensed gun dealers always have to run background
checks, so the “gun show exception” is actually a personal-transfer
exception. Applying background checks to personal gun show sales
might scoop up a few more transactions — or just drive people to
arrange to meet where the rule doesn’t apply. And actual online
sales involving the shipping of a firearm already have to go
through federally licensed dealers, who do background checks. The
new measure would seem to require background checks for in-person
sales that originate in online classified ads. Newspaper ads and
flyers posted at a gun shop wouldn’t be covered. What happens to
people who advertise in multiple venues is anybody’s guess.
Yeah, none of that makes any sense. And none of it would have
prevented the Sandy Hook massacre, since Adam Lanza and his mom
were both capable of passing any number of background checks,
online, at a gun show, or stopped randomly on the street. That’s a
hell of a thing on which to make your political last stand. As the
New York Times puts it:
In spite of a vote last Thursday in favor of debating new gun
measures, some Democrats who are facing re-election next year in
conservative states have already said they will not vote for the
background check measure offered by Senators Patrick J. Toomey,
Republican of Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West
Virginia, forcing Democrats to look desperately across the aisle to
fill the gaps.
Republicans, in the meantime, are bitterly torn between
moderates who feel pressure to respond to polls showing a majority
of Americans in support of some new gun regulations and
conservatives who are deeply opposed to them. …
Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska, says he will vote
against the measure, and at least three other Democrats are
expected to join him in trying to defeat it, including Heidi
Heitkamp, a freshman senator from North Dakota. Some left-leaning
Democrats may also balk because of the gun-rights provisions that
have been added to the bill to entice Republicans.
Among the 16 Republicans who joined 50 Democrats and two
independents in voting last week to proceed to consideration of gun
legislation, roughly seven have already decided not to support the
measure. Another half-dozen Republicans who voted to proceed on the
bill remain ambivalent.
The Republican Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Johnny
Isakson of Georgia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bob Corker
of Tennessee, all of whom voted to proceed on the bill, are no
votes right now, and several others are expected to also vote down
the amendment on Tuesday, the expected day of the vote.
New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg is expected to support the measure
— if he shows up. But he’s three years older than the sun itself
and has been
largely absent from D.C. this year.
All of this is great political kabuki theater over a toothless
gun bill.
Real background check requirements would need to
deeply regulate even personal transfers and would require some sort
of registration system to be effective. They would also be
unenforceable because they would attempt to reach into personal
relationships — and would certainly land
harmless people in prison in the attempt. It’s hard to believe
such an intrusive threat
to personal liberty would pass, when the current Senate measure
stumbles even before meeting an almost guaranteed doom in the
House.
Meanwhile, Missouri, left to its own devices, is addressing
school safety issues by
allowing teachers to carry guns. So far, that seems to meet the
approval of most parents. It’s funny what states and localities can
come up with in terms of locally acceptable solutions when left to
their own devices. … Read More
