VETO THREAT: Trump Says He’ll Block Democrat Gun Control Scheme
Jose Nino
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The Trump Administration is taking a stand against the House’s attempts to implement gun registration.
On Monday, the White House released a statement indicating that President Trump would veto bills, H.R. 8 and H.R, 1112, that would expand so-called “background checks” for all gun purchases if they make it past the House and Senate.
H.R. 8 specifically enacts universal background checks and H.R. 1112 would close the “Charleston loophole” that Dylann Roof used in the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church to buy a gun.
For H.R. 8, Democrats have the bipartisan support of Republican Congressmen like Peter King, Brian Fitzpatrick, Brian Mast, Fred Upton, and Chris Smith. Both bills are expected to pass the House but will encounter steep obstacles in Republican-controlled Senate.
Despite these bills’ innocuous labels, they would ultimately require a national registry to function. And as every gun owner knows, registration is just the first step to gun confiscation.
For justified reasons, the White House expressed its opposition to both bills on the grounds that they violated the Second Amendment. The statement voiced its concern with H.R. 8:
“The extensive regulation required by H.R. 8 is incompatible with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to keep arms.”
Then it singled out H.R.1112:
“By overly extending the minimum time that a licensed entity is required to wait for background check results, H.R. 1112 would unduly impose burdensome delays on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm.”
Then the statement concluded with the following:
“If H.R. 8, or H.R. 1112, are presented to the President, his advisors would recommend he veto the bill.”
Since the Newtown shooting in Connecticut, universal gun registration has become the gun control legislation of choice for gun controllers nationwide. Eleven states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia currently have universal background checks on the books.
Despite the hype surrounding UBCs, there is reason to be skeptical.
In The War on Guns, John Lott found that UBCs have very little impact in reducing crime, and in subsequent investigations, UBCs actually make it hard for the poor and minorities to effectively arm themselves.
These so-called “universal background checks” are not universal because criminals will avoid them at all costs. On top of that, bills like H.R. 8 would impose more unnecessary financial and legal burdens on gun owners who already have to jump considerable hoops in the first place.
Despite these harsh facts, the gun controllers push on. With the House under their control, they will take advantage of this opportunity to pass gun control out of at least one chamber of Congress for the first time since the Clinton era.
Thankfully, the U.S.’s system of checks and balances will keep the gun control crowd’s anti-gun intentions at bay for the time being.
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