Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America sent out an email blast yesterday accusing Texas Senator John Cornyn of attempting to sell out gun owners:

We have an emergency on our hands.

While preparing to fight back against the ATF’s unconstitutional regulation of pistol braces, we learned some disturbing news…

Senator John Cornyn — a Republican who should be pro-2A — is quietly making a deal with the rabid anti-gunner, Chris Murphy, to pass universal background checks.

We need EVERY gun owner in America to take action right now to prevent what would be Armageddon for the Second Amendment.

The language seems overwrought in that direct mail we’re-all-going-to-die-unless-you-donate way. Is there some truth to it? Apparently so:

After years of failed attempts to pass a firearms background check bill, two senators think they have a path to agreement — at least on one key component of a deal.

Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been quietly negotiating a way to bolster background check rules by making a small but consequential tweak to current law, which they say would close an unintended loophole in the system that has led to preventable mass shootings.

House-passed legislation to require background checks on nearly all gun purchases has stalled in the Senate. But Murphy and Cornyn, who have been negotiating behind closed doors with little fanfare, believe they may have a formula that can attract broad support from both parties.

Bipartisan, of course, means that the Stupid Party and the Evil Party get together to do something stupid and evil. Or, in this case, Republicans go squishy in the face of Democrat demands. The NBC makes it sound innocuous:

Specifically, they want to clarify who is required to register as a federal firearms licensee, or FFL, and thus conduct FBI checks on a buyer before selling a gun. The senators say an ambiguity in the law has enabled unlicensed sellers to transfer weapons to dangerous people who skirt the background check system.

That is, until you realize that Democrats probably want everyone selling even one gun to register for an FFL. Cornyn’s reassurances are…not reassuring.

Cornyn said he’s motivated to close the loophole after it was exploited by the shooter in Odessa, Texas, who couldn’t buy a firearm from a licensed dealer due to mental health problems.

“But then he went to an unlicensed dealer who bought parts and assembled those — but basically was in the business of manufacturing firearms,” he said. “But because he was not a federal firearms licensee — because he was evading that requirement — he didn’t do a background check and this guy got this AR-15 lookalike and killed a lot of innocent people.”

I suspect this is another feint in the Democrats’ battle on 80% lowers, which is part of their campaign to ban all AR-pattern modern sporting rifles, which is a front in their greater war to completely disarm all law-abiding citizens.

Media coverage makes it sounds like there are scores of basement gunsmiths cranking out AR-15s from parts kits and selling them willy-nilly. (And honestly, given the current panic buying, that’s probably not the worst business model out there.) If that were the case, I’m pretty sure current legislation gives the ATF plenty of scope to shut down unlicensed firearms factories. And if they’re not, additional legislation isn’t going to help that goal, but only provides an additional means by which the federal government can ensnare and harass law-abiding citizens.

I’ve asked Senator Cornyn (yesterday via Twitter, today via email) to comment on the report, but thus far I haven’t heard back.

It’s bad enough that Democrats are trying to use their razor-thin legislative majorities to ram through their gun-grabbing legislation without Republicans defecting. No Republican should agree to any changes in gun laws while Democrats are in control.