Well, to no one’s surprise, the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee approved several anti-gun measures for a vote, including red flag laws, a ban on so-called large-capacity magazines, and expanded background checks. It’s the same old story with the anti-gun Left. Red flag laws are an issue. We should always be on the alert, but an expanded background checks bill is the enemy at the gates. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can nuke all of these proposals but said he’d put a background check bill for a vote if it had the backing of Trump. And that goes for the rest of the Senate GOP caucus (via CBS News):
The House Judiciary Committee voted to send several gun control bills to the House floor for a full vote on Tuesday, even as the Senate and President Trump vacillate on support for less restrictive proposals.
The committee meeting, known as a markup, came after three deadly mass shootings in the month of August that killed 38 people in total. House Democrats urged the Senate to hold an emergency session to vote on a bill passed by the House in February which would implement universal background checks, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted the call.
McConnell recently said that he is waiting on Mr. Trump to signal which gun control measure, if any, he supports, before acting in the Senate. He said that he would bring a background checks bill to the Senate floor only if it had Mr. Trump's support and he was certain "we will pass it and it'll become law."
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McConnell said that Democratic tactics were "theatrics," given that Mr. Trump has not said that he would sign any of the gun control legislation under consideration in the House.
"We are working on coming up with a proposal that the president will sign. Until that happens, all of this is theatrics," McConnell said.
Mr. Trump has sent mixed signals about whether he would support background checks.
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H.R. 1236, the "Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019": This bill would provide grants to help state, tribal and local efforts to remove firearms from individuals determined to be a danger to themselves or others. Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws are more commonly known as "red flag" laws.
H.R. 1186, the "Keep Americans Safe Act": This bill would regulate large capacity ammunition feeding devices, such as a magazine or belt, making it illegal to import, sell, manufacture or possess such devices.
H.R. 2708, the "Disarm Hate Act": This bill would prevent a person convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from obtaining a firearm.
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Red flag laws sound great. In principle, I’m for them. The problem is Democrats aren’t going to be for having a thorough and rigid due process system to ensure this system isn’t abused. They see it as a backdoor to gun confiscation, where mean tweets can warrant the police showing up at a law-abiding citizen’s home to have their firearms taken away if they own any. This is a tricky subject, which the Left understands but just doesn’t care. It’s an election year. Trump knows he needs Second Amendment supporters and the gun rights crowd to win re-election. He cannot upset this apple cart.
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