Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)
If you are a firearms owner, it’s time to pay the piper, if Democrats get their way.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) has introduced a gun control measure, H.R. 127, requiring gun owner licensing, psychological evaluations, retroactive gun registration and separate licensing for modern sporting rifles. The bill would require the owner of any firearm to supply the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the make, model and serial number of every gun he or she owns – and that includes guns people may have owned for years. They would also have to report the identity of any person to whom, and any period of time during which, the firearm will be loaned to that individual.
The licensing requirement mandates that the license applicant undergoes a criminal background check, and then submits to a psychological evaluation to determine whether the person is psychologically unsuited to possess a firearm. Successful licensees must show they have an insurance policy which will cost $800.
“H.R. 127 is a constitutionally-challenged monstrosity,” Alan Gottlieb of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms stated. “It ignores the fact that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental rightto keep and bear arms, not some strictly-regulated government privilege. Government cannot require a psychological evaluation to exercise a right enumerated in the Constitution.”
CNN’s Anderson Cooper questioned the president on the campaign trail in 2019, asking “To gun owners out there who say a Biden administration means they’re going to come for my guns…” “Bingo!” President Biden interrupted, “You’re right, if you have an assault weapon … The fact of the matter is they should be illegal. Period.”
With President Biden’s announcement of his gun control plan that includes an MSR ban that would mean nearly 20 million MSR-owning Americans would become criminals. That doesn’t sound like “unifying the country,” especially when millions of those MSR owners are in communities where law enforcement budgets have been cut, leading to spikes in crime.
However, the firearm industry provides “Real Solutions” from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, including partnerships with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and local law enforcement to include:
*Partnering with 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute 40 million firearm safety kits, including locking devices, for safe firearm storage through Project ChildSafe®.
*Fixing the FBI’s background check system by changing the law in 16 states and in Congress to increase reporting of disqualifying adjudicated mental health records.
*Partnering with the ATF to prevent illegal firearm straw purchases and warning it is a crime punishable by 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
*Improving security at firearm retailers, with ATF, to deter criminals from stealing firearms.
*Matching ATF reward offers up to $5,000 to bring criminals to justice that steal firearms.
*Preventing firearm suicides with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Department of Veterans Affairs.
It’s difficult to comprehend how government would be able to enforce provisions of HB 127 but such lunacy of elitist officials will further divide this nation. The choice is simple: Threaten millions of law-abiding Americans and tax them into submission for exercising their God-given right to self-defense or hold criminals responsible for their behavior.
