House passes gun control bill banning private sales of firearms.

Various rifles for sale at a gun show. Reuters. 

The House has passed a bill that would ban the private sales of firearms. Reuters. The bill passed 240-190 and now goes to the senate, where is is likely to face opposition in the GOP controlled Senate. The White House has also said they will veto the bill if it passes. Though the bill has little chance of passing into law it is the largest gun control bill that has gotten this far in a long time. 

The Republicans for their part managed to force an amendment to the bill that would notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if an illegal alien tried to buy a gun. This amendment passed after 26 Democrats joined the Republicans to pass it. This was seen as a major embarrassment for Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats leadership as they had opposed the measure. 

My Comment:

This bill has little chance of passing. With an almost total ban of private sales this bill will be opposed by the GOP and vetoed by the president. Trump has already said he will veto this bill and others proposed by the Democrats. In order to overcome this, the Democrats would need to secure 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate. I could see a few GOP members betraying their base to pass this but not 50 in the house or 14 in the Senate. This is largely a symbolic vote that has no chance of becoming law. 

It is very hard to find a media outlet that is truthful about what this bill entails. Universal background checks is not a true accounting of the bill. A much more accurate name for it is a ban on private sales on firearms. There are a few exceptions, like inheritance, but this bill would make it so you can't sell your own gun without taking it to a firearms dealer first. If you did so you would be a criminal and even if you just lent a gun to someone without giving them a background check at first you could be criminally liable. 

Of course if the Democrats were actually serious about improving things they could have done something that would actually help. There is basically no reason why the background check system has to go through gun dealers. They could pass a law that opens up NICS to civilians so that if you wanted to you could file a background check on your own for free. 

This is pretty much the de-facto situation for most private gun sales. Most sellers on Armslist and other online gun websites insist on seeing a CCW permit, submit to a background check via court websites and/or make a bill of sale. Despite straw buyers being a problem, most people who sell their guns online are responsible and do not want their guns sold to someone who is irresponsible. And of course, any gun sold by a dealer, including all of those at gun shows, go through a federal background check. Opening up the NICS system would make it so anyone that wants a background check can do it, hopefully on your cell phone via a free app. 

I do wonder what the Democrats play here is. Gun owners are a very politically motivated group and are powerful enough to turn elections. Whatever complaints the gun community has against the GOP and President Trump, if they succeed in stopping this bill they will be very motivated to vote for Republicans to make sure that this bill doesn't pass after the 2020 elections. Given the natural advantage of incumbency, the possibility of a major 3rd party candidate and Trump's massive popularity among his base, you would think that the Democrats would avoid shooting themselves in the foot by trying to pass gun control bills. 

Which makes me question the timing of this bill. Doing it early in the term means that voters may forget about it by 2020. By passing this legislation, which has no real chance of becoming law, they are telling their gun hating constituents they are doing something without actually doing anything. They are banking on the short term political benefits of the bill will outweigh any long term consequences. I sincerely doubt that anyone in the gun rights community will forget about it though.

I do think it was pretty funny that the GOP managed to pass their amendment to the bill that would notify ICE when an illegal alien tried to purchase a firearm. This is one of those common sense things that would be law already if we had a functioning government, but unfortunately it's not likely to become law either.  

It did put House Democrats into a tough position though. Opponents of the amendment are basically saying that if you sell your gun to someone who is legally able to buy it, you should be thrown in prison. But if an illegal alien tires to buys a gun illegally? No problem! It's not surprising that some Democrats defected on this issue, but it's essentially status quo ante. Straw buyers are pretty much not prosecuted at all and Democrats have opposed it due to "sexism" concerns as they don't want to throw wives and girlfriends of felons buying guns into prison. Which is pretty sexist in itself. 

Still, I find it horrifying that the Democrats have gone so extreme on gun control. Conventional wisdom is that gun control is electoral poison and was a major reason why the Democrats lost control of congress during the Clinton years. And back when the Feds actually tried to crack down hard on the NFA laws during the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, they incited one of the biggest terror attacks in American history. Obama didn't do anything on guns during his term due to this concern but it seems like the Democrats are forgetting this lesson. 

I have long said that gun rights is the most likely thing to ignite a civil war in the United States but the Democrats don't seem to care. Though I don't think a ban on private sales is enough to start a war, an assault weapons ban or any gun confiscation scheme probably would be. I sincerely hope that the Democrats never gain power again and if they do saner heads will prevail.