Congress Pushes Anti-Gun Brady Law Expansion Bill

-Larry Pratt – Gun Owners of America

The first major anti-gun bill of the new Pelosi-led Congress has already been introduced, and it could prove to be the most serious threat yet to Second Amendment Rights.

On the first full day of the new Congress, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced H.R. 297, the most massive expansion of the Brady law since it passed in 1993. This is a bill that was quashed last year but under the new Pelosi House leadership, the Bill has a higher likelihood of getting passed this time.

Conducting Talk Show interviews on this topic is Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, the nation’s second largest gun group.

During your interview, Larry can share with your audience that the proposed Bill provides, in the form of grants, about $1 billion to the states to “provide the National Instant Criminal Background Check System [NICS] with all records concerning persons who are prohibited from possessing or receiving a firearm under subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 of title 18, United States Code, regardless of the elapsed time since the disqualifying event.”

Now that is a mouthful, but the danger of this Bill is that under the Lautenberg ban, people who have committed very minor offenses that include pushing, shoving or, in some cases, merely yelling at a family member, can no longer own afirearm for self-defense. Then, if a real criminal invades your home with a gun, the home owner is defenseless to protect his or her family.

NICS is the system used by the FBI to conduct a background check prior to a firearm sale by a federally licensed gun dealer. Most people are aware that NICS records include a list of convicted felons, but there are many other categories of persons who are prohibited from possessing firearms for which computerized lists may not be available. It is these categories that are targeted by this bill.

This bad Bill expands upon the unconstitutional Lautenberg misdemeanor gun ban [922 (g)(9)]. This gun ban, passed as an amendment to a 1996 omnibus spending bill and signed into law by none other than President Clinton, was first introduced by leading anti-gun Senators Frank Lautenberg, Dianne Feinstein, and your favorite and mine, Ted Kennedy.

During your interview with Larry Pratt, he gives a clarion call to repeal, rather than expand, the Lautenberg gun ban.

This draconian Bill also seeks to computerize records of persons merely indicted for a crime, before they even have a fair trial! Under this awful Bill, such persons, though not even convicted of the crime in question, are prohibited from possessing a firearm!

The gun grabbers are seeking to force the states to provide the federal government all of these indictment records, updated quarterly. Given the maxim among those in the legal profession that prosecutors can get a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich,” this, too, is a gun prohibition that should be repealed, not expanded.

Mental health records are also covered under the McCarthy bill. To some, this may sound like a great idea. After all, who could argue with the premise of keeping guns away from bona fide paranoid schizophrenic prior offenders who are loose on the streets?

But the insidious part of this proposed Bill is that it could forbid American servicemen from carrying firearms, even though they are trained to use them. Why? Because many servicemen take well meaning advice to see some type of psychiatric care, particularly for those who faced some degree of post-traumatic stress. Under this Bill, these soldiers can kiss their guns goodbye.

ABOUT: LARRY PRATT…
Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms. GOA lobbies for the pro-gun position in Washington and is involved in firearm issues in the states. GOA’s work includes providing legal assistance to those involved in
lawsuits with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the federal firearms law enforcement agency.

Pratt has appeared on numerous national radio and TV programs such as NBC’s Today Show, CBS’ Good Morning America, CNN’s Crossfire and Larry King Live, Fox’s Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC’s Phil Donahue show and many others. He has debated Congressmen James Traficant, Jr. (D-OH), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Vice President Al Gore, among others. His columns have appeared in newspapers across the country. He published a book, Armed People Victorious, in 1990 and was editor of a book, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution & Militias, 1995. His latest book, On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty was published in 2001. Pratt has held elective office in the state legislature of Virginia, serving in the House
of Delegates. Pratt directs a number of other public interest organizations and serves as the Vice-Chairman of the American Institute for Cancer Research.