HR 45
The bill looks particularly nasty. Some bits:
1. Require licensing for anybody that owns a gun.
2. Would require photographs and a thumbprint
3. Would require passage of a test that covers:
(A) the safe storage of firearms, particularly in the vicinity of persons who have not attained 18 years of age;
(B) the safe handling of firearms;
(C) the use of firearms in the home and the risks associated with such use;
(D) the legal responsibilities of firearms owners, including Federal, State, and local laws relating to requirements for the possession and storage of firearms, and relating to reporting requirements with respect to firearms; and
(E) any other subjects, as the Attorney General determines to be appropriate;
Sebastian highlights some other gems in this bill:
mandates licensing, registration and safe storage for handguns and semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines. It also provides for inspection, so you surrender your fourth amendment rights by being licensed. It also requires reporting of Lost and Stolen firearms, and you must inform the federal government if you change addresses.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
This bill has only been introduced as of now, right? It has not left any committee?
January 13th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
As egregious as the rest of the bill is, it is the findings section that I find particularly repugnant. If it were not for the fact that the SCOTUS (and ourselves) lets congress construe everything to be interstate commerce, then stuff like this would get no where at the national level.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Oh hells no.
Rabbit.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Trying desperately to turn the United States into Canada. That’s almost exactly how the Canadians do it, and the primary reason why I never became a gun owner in Canada. And that you had to be a member of a shooting range in order to own a non-hunting firearm. For a starvin college student, the cost of all the training, licensing, and club membership was prohibitive.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Jesus. Bobby Rush was the “defense secretary” of the black panthers. I believe his own son was a gang banger wh got himself killed in the hood. Bobby’s nephew killed a guy in a drug deal and Bobby himself did time for gun possession. This fucker wants to tell me how to live my life?
January 13th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Dear congresscritters,
Molon Labe, bitches.
Love,
Tam
January 13th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Tam Wins.
I concede to her superior communicative skills.
Regards,
Rabbit.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I third Tam, and will never comply with any of that garbage.
III
January 13th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
So, since this is being based on the Commerce clause, does that mean that any firearm made and sold within the same state is exempt?
Didn’t a western state make that argument?
Molon Labe
January 13th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
The safe storage violates Heller. The rest has not been decided by courts if constitutional. Since having a gun is constitutional right, the question to push in courts is that the state can not require a license to enjoy that right.
Now the recent court cases that said to vote it is constitutional to check id can be problematical about the photographs and thumbprint.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Congress can suck it.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:16 am
It’s certainly a bad law, but the inspection requirement appears to only apply to dealers, not the individual owners.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:26 am
I will not license or register, ever. That way leads madness, and I will not play.
Come and try to force me, and reap the whirlwind. Starting with you, Blair Holt, for introducing this bill in the first place.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:23 am
With the exception of the inspection clause, all of those stipulations apply in Massa-fucking-chusetts…
Welcome to hell, kid.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:17 am
If they actually by some miracle pass this bill, I recommend all gun owners revolt.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
They will, don’t worry. At least, the threepers will turn into 20%+.
We all know extremists on both sides when it comes to compliance with the law, based on principle. Those are far outnumbered by those who fail to comply based on laziness.
January 14th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Now if in fact it were to pass, how much do you think it would cost to do this? If you look at the experience in Canada, the price tag ballooned from $20 Million to over $2 Billion with a far smaller number of firearms in circulation. That in itself was a contributing factor to Harper’s win over the Liberal Party a couple of years ago. If you add to that the non-compliance factor which I suspect would be far higher here and the idea that a violation of this is equivalent to an NFA violation where is the motivation for folks to refrain from converting semis to FA? These knuckleheads should watch what they ask for.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Need a license to drive a car. Need a photo on file to drive a car. Need to pass two tests to drive a car. Have to get the car inspected regularly. Have to have the car licensed. You know what all that means? Damn govt. doesn’t want us having cars! Gonna make it criminal to own a car, then only criminals will be driving.
*big ol’ eye roll at the lot of you*
January 14th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Hey BC…..Car ownership and registration does not have any political implications nor is it a pre-existing right guaranteed by the Constitution. Gun ownership and registration does on both counts. Buzz off.
Eagle 1
January 14th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Gun and car licenses!
I don’t need a license to buy an automobile
I can own any car I choose if I don’t take it on a public road. I only need to register my gun if I plan to have on a public thoroughfare.
Anyone (including violent criminals) can purchase an automobile as long as they can sign a legal contract to pay for it. Even children with cash can buy them.
License valid in all 50 states
There is no waiting period to purchase an automobile.
People convicted of felonies or domestic violence can own an automobile.
There is no limit how many cars I can own, or how many I can buy per month.
Sweet, sign me up.
Not thought this through, have you? Like most things, I’d guess.
And there’s also that little bit about how there’s no constitutional protection for driving.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
They pass this and I promise they will get a war that they can not afford. The day this passes, that’s it; WAR!
January 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
For the next few days, the Obamateam has a “Citizens briefing book” on the http://www.change.gov website. I suggest you register, log in and comment under “Firearms” or “2nd admendment” and log your comments. copyyour e-mail, and forward to your local paper and congressional delegation, for filing, to help keep the Obama crowd honest. Don’t wait for NRA, GOA, they won’t help you. Carefully read the new definition of ” Arms” in Heller… It begins, “then, as now..” and removes any firearm of military manufacture OR DESIGN DERIVED, from 2nd amendment coverage. This is in conformity with the UN Weapons treaty, enactment of which is in the Obama “Global Poverty ” bill.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Unless the economy continue to decline or the US sustains another terrorist attack of the 9/11 magnitude,the electorate will become even more misinformed and more of our representatives will be or like Al Franken or Bobbie Rush.The forces actively against the Second Amendment will be able to pass into LAW outrageous and unconstitutional bills like HR45. The transformation and degeneration of this country into a Bolshivick circus has begun. Being “law abiding” under such circumstatnces will be collaboration,cowardness and treason.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Blair Holt…..Take your gun laws and shove them up your ass. you are nothing but a fucking snake.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Ed Note: Comment deleted – ‘tard limit exceeded. Go be a racist somewhere else.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
seems to me like BC needs a lesson . . . Guess who is going to be first on the chopping block when people finally get sick of the intrusions.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:40 am
None of it matters the treasonous dogs are going to rewrite the constitution anyway….people wanted “CHANGE” and well they got it, HITLER. Biz with no profits, even more discriminatory tax codes, and no more individual rights.
IMPEACH OBAMA!
January 16th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
The bill’s intent is clear. It simply places ALL firearms in to the Class 3 NFA weapons category. No problem exercising you 2nd Amendment rights, as long as you don’t mind signing away all your other rights, and live in an appropriate state that doesn’t otherwise restrict them.
January 16th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
This is creeping Fascism, nothing more and nothing less. It is big government making all decisions for you. All hail the government, they will determine how you will live, and with what you will be allowed. These current crop of “Progressive” with their social engineering are as dangerous as Marx and Stalin. They have a working example to look to in our country’s history. Review the Wilson Administration for parallels. And yes Bobby Rush was the Co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party. I guess once radical, always a radical.
Rush, Ayers, and Obama, what the hell is going on in Chicago? I guess it’s one of the reasons why my in-laws have all moved out of Cook County.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I think BC is a govcorp stooge working to subvert the
itellectual argument. Jefferson thought the second amendment so important that it should be enshrined.
He also defined the second amendments’ “milita,” as
the people armed with the weapons of their time, whos
duty it is to assist the regular army in time of need.
What needs to happen is for the people to call the introduction of this bill for it actually is; “High Treason.”
January 17th, 2009 at 12:21 am
There is a reason the 2nd amendment was put in place, it this passes, exercise it.