House Passes Bill Enhancing Background Checks for Gun Purchases
The House passed legislation today that intends to strengthen gun buyer background checks and is supported by both the National Rifle Association and gun control groups.
Passed by voice vote under suspension of the rules, the measure (HR 2640) would increase the amount of electronic data available to states for checking the criminal and mental health records of people who want to purchase guns.
According to Gun Owners of America:
"[NICS Expansion] could have a significant impact on American servicemen," wrote Gun Owners of America recently, "especially those returning from combat situations and who seek some type of psychiatric care.
Often, veterans who have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder have been deemed as mentally 'incompetent' and are prohibited from owning guns under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(4). Records of those instances certainly exist, and, in 1999, the Department of Veterans Administration turned over 90,000 names of veterans to the FBI for inclusion into the NICS background check system."
Cool. More lists. More databases. Less freedom.
Do something. Just don't join the NRA.
(BTW, Blogger now works with Safari 3.0 beta! :^)
2 comments:
The most offensive thing IMO is that it was a voice vote. Didn't the Democrats make the claim that they were for open government? Why aren't we able to hold our representatives' feet to the fire on this, then?
Well, you probably live in a state that has some Ds to call. I'll give my R a call. I have a mix at the Senate, but *sigh.* Rs tend to vote with the NRA. Bah.
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