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Subscribe to RSSA bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal on a bill that would make it a federal crime to buy a gun for someone who isn't legally allowed to own one.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy announced the agreement on the Senate floor Monday evening.
Illegal gun “straw” purchases, made by a buyer on behalf of someone who cannot pass a background check, are often not prosecuted under current law, usually because conducting such a sale yields such a weak penalty.
The new compromise legislation would make the consequences for both straw buyers and sellers far more serious - to the tune of decades in jail.
"Instead of a slap on the wrist or treating this like a paperwork violation, these crimes under our bill would be punishable by up to 25 years in prison," Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said.
In broad strokes, cracking down on gun trafficking has wide support in both parties and isn't intensely controversial, as other potential gun control measures are. A bipartisan group of House members have already introduced a similar trafficking bill in that chamber.
The National Rifle Association appears to be reaching out to minorities in its fights against new gun laws. TheGrio.com's Earl Ofari Hutchinson responds to the ad.
The Senate legislation will include penalties for the straw purchaser as well as for the gun seller. Collins is a cosponsor, as is Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., have also signed on.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will take up the trafficking bill on Thursday, when it also plans to consider three other pieces of gun control legislation: an assault weapons ban, a school safety measure and a bill to require background checks for all gun buyers.
With an assault weapons ban all but doomed to fail, the focus is still on the universal background check bill. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York have been negotiating with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but those talks have mostly stalled over disagreements about whether to require that private sellers keep records of private gun sales.
“We’re working through all that and Tom will make a decision at the end where he is on the bill,” Manchin said Monday.
Coburn told reporters late Monday that he spoke by phone with President Barack Obama earlier in the day, but would not elaborate on the subject of their discussion.
Democrats have been circulating the potential background check bill to other Republican senators as they continue talking to Coburn. Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake have both been involved, as has Collins.
It's unlikely that they'll reach a deal before Thursday's planned Judiciary Committee markup, Democratic aides said Monday. If there’s no deal, the committee would take up a background check bill that Democrats wrote during the last Congress.
Manchin said he hoped to reach a deal before the committee meeting. “We’re trying. But if not, it’s not the end of the world,” he said.
Negotiations around background checks could then continue until the bill reaches the Senate floor. The National Rifle Association opposes universal background checks; Coburn has an "A" rating from that group.
Asked which Republican senators might emerge as a potential cosponsor if Coburn decides not to, Manchin told NBC News: “I think that anybody that comes from the gun culture, especially those that have had A ratings.”
Senate Democratic aides say the chamber is likely to consider gun legislation on the Senate floor during the first week of April.
This story was originally published on Mon Mar 4, 2013 6:22 PM EST
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Most vets I know are NOT gun nuts who are obsessed with guns,we had enough exposure with weapons during wartime. Of course you always have those Rambo wannabes.
Good point,,I taught range,,,
excellent job....keep it up
I am a 50 year member of the NRA, a "right wing gun nut". Having said that I support anything we can do to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people who by law or form of mental illness should not and cannot have them.
"A bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal on a bill that would make it a federal crime to buy a gun for someone who isn't legally allowed to own one."
I hope this passes and I hope they prosecute the crap out of it. I hope the sentence is very long. The more we can do to work on the criminal, his means of getting a gun the better off we will all be. If someone attempts to purchase a fire arm from an FFL dealer and lies on the application form that should also be a federal crime. That sentence should be long also. If we need to bolster up the laws in these areas, good, lets do it.
Ok let the haters loose, I can take it.
How can there be hate? It's just like prosecuting those who would purchase alcohol for minors who cannot legally drink. It's about as obvious as dark is at night. But there is no mistaking the politically manufactured "out" for a bunch of politicians who are desperate to find something to OK now that they made a big stink about a problem they cannot solve.
Everything about the ACLU screams out to free criminals on technicalities......
What are they doing to help put more behind bars?
Unless I have violated the law in making the sale (IE-sold to a known felon, to someone that is ineligible to own a firearm, to someone I know is purchasing to commit a crime or to someone I know is purchasing for another) then I am not the one in trouble in a straw-man purchase. These laws will undoubtedly be used to prosecute some that have not knowingly committed a crime.
That is where the issue comes in... today we have children being suspended from school because of a ZERO tolerance.... all for forming the "shape" of a gun in something.... suspended for playing cops & robbers... lives traumatized for the sake of being politically correct....
The President and certain members of Congress were politically opportunistic in their jumping on the gun control bandwagon. They quickly found that America likes its guns.
That we already have draconian laws on the books that don't solve the problem has been overlooked. Thinking people get that. So they all took what they could agree to so as not to waste the opportunity to declare victory.
It's all well and good if we all want to characterize this small element of gun legislation as progress because both sides actually came to agree on a no brainer. Great. Like many others, I am all for more R's working with more D's to enact meaningful legislation.
But being realistic, this advance really isn't anything significant. So rather than patting themselves on the back for finding something they could actually agree on, how about our elected officials get to work on the more compelling problems facing our nation - such as jobs, the budget deficit, immigration reform and identifying the valuable entitlements to fund with our tax dollars.
These are the problems that our elected officials should be attending to while they waste time on the media sideshow.
Rick:
How right you are!!! Unfortunately it doesn't take much for many Americans to applaud our politicians. I guess we are so used to them bickering that anything they may agree on, regardless of how insignificant gives them this false sense of hope. I hate to bust your bubble folks, but this is such a nothing bipartisan move!!! How about we save our applause and thank our politicians when they actually do something of signficance. God bless America!!
Smart people don't even worry about guns.We have them we are skilled and are ready to respond to any miltia redneck group,ect
"We"? You're not part of the smart people group.
B357 has been watching too many M*A*S*H re-runs.
I would trust that NUT with a sling shot.
So what was done on the budget today? Guns, gays getting married, voting laws in the South, trips to play golf with Tiger ------ they will do anything but produce a budget so this bunch of worthless liars, cheats, and crooks must have a reason for not doing it and you can beat it is not good for the country.
>A bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal on a bill that would make it a federal crime to buy a gun for >someone who isn't legally allowed to own one.
And how is this going to prevent a criminal from obtaining a gun?
It's time to vote out all of these idiots in the Senate in 2014!
I really cannot understand how this is "news".
Read the form 4473:
http://www.atf.gov/forms/download/atf-f-4473-1.pdf
It's already a Federal felony!!
.
Exactly....must be a slow legislation day.
Democrats, logic, and existing laws don't mix. Haven't you figured this out already?
Law makers feel that threatening longer jail time will make some difference to criminals that are let go on technicalities.....
Longer jail time isn't going to prevent criminal from being let go on technicalities... that's why they're called - "technicalities".
Don't need technicalities when you don't bother to even try to prosecute. Oh and why was that:
I guess up to a quarter million dollar fine and ten years in prison isn't worth the bother like the new laws up to twenty five years in the joint is.
The Universal background checks on ALL gun sales should be passed. Whether it be private, at a shop or a gun show...it's a no brainer to pass this type of law.
Lived in arizona, virginia , michigan, colorado and now in Utah have had back ground checks at shows and shops since 1992
The Federal Government has no jurisdiction over the transfer of private property inside a single state. If it is not interstate commerce than they have no authority. They know this, which is why the NICS system, when established, only applied to FFL dealers, or those licensed by the federal government to import guns or sell them across state lines. If they attempt to pass a "universal" background check that extends to private sales it will be struck down by the SCOTUS.
This law would make Obama and Holder criminals by definition.
Even if you find a mentally unbalanced person nothing will be done to them because we have a prison system overloaded and no mental healthcare. They will continue to run loose.
um....It was already Illegal and the penalty is 10 years in prison. Don't understand why this is a major event.
I don't know about everyone else reading this, but I personally don't think 10 years in the Federal Pen is exactly a Slap on the Wrist as the author stated.
Prisons full good luck on a non violent crime getting put behind bars
As a gun owner, law abiding citizen and NRA member, I have no problem at all with that. THIS is the kind of legislation that actually makes sense & I'm all for it. Bravo!
The same with universal background checks. That should have been done all along.
If these are the kind of common sense laws that result from the recent spate of gun violence in the US, then maybe some progress will be made after all.
Me too,,,, I am all for it. 50 year member of the NRA, and as some would call me a "right wing gun nut"
The issue is it DOES NOTHING to stop the criminal from buying guns from his family or from stealing them.... that where the FBI Uniform Crime Report says they get their guns..... LESS THAN 2 PERCENT will buy from a gun show....
Hmmm, that's about the same percentage that sequester affected?
well its a start
did you say bipartisan? Unbelievable....
Start of what? To agree on passing another stupid irrelevant law?
OMG, the gun nuts were right!! The first step toward total gun confiscation has been taken!!!! The communist takeover has begun!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
More BS legislation. We already have laws on the books that make it a felony. The media is not telling the whole story. I would look at the fine print on this legislation. The next move will be to make sure that legislation is enacted to restrict who is eligible to own a gun. First it will be the obvious those with severe mental disorders then those on any depression medication and finally anyone considered a risk to the govts power over its citizens.
The Obama acolytes don't care about their freedom to protect themselves or the babies they say they want to protect they only care about their globalist masters. They are too lazy to look at stats at history and at their own cowardice to recognize that what they are doing is helping to empower a govt drunk on its own power.
Sounds like an empty gesture. So the person who purchases the weapon reports it stolen and they are off the hook. Assault weapons and 30 round magazines are still available to be purchased, that shouldn't a threat or a concern to anyone right?.
What's an assault weapon again that is supposed to concern me?
Hey Earl some of the first gun control laws in the nation were Race based right after the Civil war.
And there is no way that you can deny that "Black on Black" crime has been ignored in this Country for far too long.
Maybe you Barry and Dead Fish should motorcade on over to the South Side this Weekend and roll up on some of the Gang Bangers that are the root of the problem there and see what kind of a difference you can make.
Bad guy is still going to take or steal the gun. Make all the laws you want, bad guys don't follow the laws. This is just a PR move by the losers we can government.
So we'll have 2 (that I know of) laws deeming the same thing as a federal crime. That seems redundant. I'm not saying this isn't a good idea... BUT IT'S ALREADY A FEDERAL CRIME TO LIE ON FORM 4473... which is filled out for ALL new firearm purchases. Amazing the idiocy of out legislatures. ENFORCE THE LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOKS BEFORE WASTING TIME & MONEY ON NEW LAWS. Sheesh!
How is this a good start? It amazing how people don't think thru stuff. A crook breaks into my house and steals my gun commits a crime. He goes to jail for his crime (20 years) and I go to jail for providing him with a gun (25 years). There is no proof I didn't buy the gun for him. Secondly, you just drop the value of your gun because the only person who can buy it is a company that can do a background check. You will have to take there offer or not sell it. Most crooks steal the gun they use, so how is this law going to help. Just look at the crimes that have happen. Most guns were not bought by a legal person for someone else.
Also, this law has already existed for years. It is not new.
BTW - The Ford Raptor is the most badass truck ever! Do you own one?
Not a bad idea but, if as Joe Biden said"we don't have the time or forces to enforce the laws we have now" will this one be inforced? We can only hope so as it is aimed at those who are not law abiding members of society. Lets hope that this is a step in the right direction and that they are going to stop harassing the law abiding people and start doing something about the criminals.
Why is the NRA so opposed to universal background checks? Being gun owner with a class A permit in my state I just don't get why the NRA isn't supporting universal background checks. Doesn't matter. I won't renew my membership to the NRA until they get with the program.
And I agree with the federal crime law regarding straw purchases. Having the right to buy a gun for yourself, a sane, non criminal person, isn't something you sell away to some thug. Unless, of course, you are a member of the federal ATF dept, then well, it's okay, cause they have the power to supposedly track all straw purchases. Hmm..... how'd that all work out for them?
Because we know, that is not where it will end.... I hold a CHL & still have to fill out the forms.... I have had a full background check, local, state & federal & yet, I cannot carry everywhere I go....
Would this new law affect Fast & Furious?
Buying a gun for someone who is not supposed to have one is already a crime. I guess this means they are actually going to enforce it? If Barrys Dumb Ass General Eric Holder can pull his head out of his ass and not try to cover anything up like Fast and Furious. Just a question for all you Obama loving morons. Why can't these politicians work as hard to balance the budget and quit pissing away money on laws and programs that won't work as they have been diligently working to try to take away one of my constitutional rights? Oh and Amnesty for Illegal immigrants another bunch of horse@!$%# Barry is good for.