GOP Senate Gun Control Bill Explained

In closed-door Senate gun control negotiations, and after-hours release of text, the United States Senate negotiated and fast-tracked a gun control measure, which seeks to chip away at the fundamental rights of the People.  

The 80-page proposal seeks to chill the right to keep and bear arms by incentivizing local disarmament proceedings, of which many states currently employ secret ex-parte hearings, massive penalties and penalty enhancements, age discrimination against young adults, and an aggressive attack on peaceable conduct among other assaults on the right. 

This bill chills the right to keep and bear arms by: 

Enhanced background checks 

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• Seeking juvenile records for purchasers under 21 requires the engagement of numerous agencies and will cause delays to access of the right
• Adding 7 days from the current 3 for National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to respond for just this one population is unequal treatment under the law based solely on age

Red Flag Laws

• Incentivizes local disarmament proceedings, of which many states currently employ secret ex-parte hearings
• Calls only for standards equivalent only to civil court
• For all the bluster in the measure about protecting due process and the constitutional rights of the subjects of the hearings during the “appropriate phase“, it implies that states will still be able to hold secret ex-parte hearings to deprive the People of their rights.
• Entitles the subject to an attorney “at the appropriate phase”, but it must be at the subject’s expense

Private Sales 

• Expands the definition of “engaged in the business” by striking “with the principal objective of livelihood and profit” in the current definition and replacing it with “to predominantly earn a profit.”
• This confusion could lead to new and successful prosecutions of private sellers who may fall under the broad and vague definition of “engaged in business” and therefore the need to be licensed.

New Misdemeanor Firearms Prohibitions

• By expanding the definition of a prohibiting misdemeanor domestic violence in such a vague, broad, and subjective way it invites confusion, and potential firearms prohibitions.

Transfers and Straw Purchases

• Expanded definitions and dramatic penalty enhancements on individuals who illegally transfer firearms
• Prohibits the government from arming drug cartels, unless the government exercises more oversight on said drug cartels, thus allowing the free flow of arms to these cartels to continue in perpetuity.

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