Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two gun-control bills that all gun owners should be aware of. Both pieces of legislation will go before the Senate for a vote and, if passed, will be a major blow to law-abiding gun owners. These are just two of many more measures the Democrats are advocating for to end the “epidemic of gun violence.”
I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but these bills are going to become law. Legistlatively speaking, there’s no way to stop them, unless we can get a few Democratic Senators to vote no. More importantly, the anti-2A side owns the messaging. They control most of the mass media and social media outlets. And these bills are framed in such a way that the proponents can claim that they aren’t taking away any gun rights, they’re just making it harder for criminals to buy firearms. Whether they’re correct or not is irrelevant; their messaging is on point. You can make valid counterarguments, but you can’t win an emotional argument with facts.
That said, do we have stats on how often the FBI background check prevents someone from purchasing a firearm? I’m resigned that we’ll lose on these bills, but I still like having facts.
With the filibuster rules in place the Republicans can stop the legislation from moving forward IF they chose to. But it only takes a simple majority to get rid of the filibuster!
Interesting post and discussion above, on laws which affect us directly.
If you’ve ever appreciated Caleb Giddings support on self-defense, in this editorial, he mentions
“The biggest thing you can do is be cool with people so that they don’t think of you as a conversational adversary; as cool as the other side of the pillow. Be a resource, so that when your non-gun owning friends ask about universal background checks, you have an opportunity to explain how the current NICS system works” [National Instant Criminal Background Check System].