Just a few days ago, HR-8 was introduced in the US House of Representatives. It is just a revision of the same bill from last year, but now the Democrats hold all the cards. While the mainstream media, and the author of the bill, are touting this as a “bipartisan bill” that is somewhat misleading.
There are currently 131 cosponsors of the bill. A whopping three (3) of them are republicans, and one of those three republicans is from one of the top 5 states that are the least friendly to gun owners. Fred Upton from Michigan, Christopher Smith from New Jersey (home of ridiculous levels of gun control) and Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania are the three Republican traitors to the constitution.
What is HR-8?
So, what is HR-8 and why is it bad? It is titled the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021” and it was introduced by Mike Thompson (D-CA). The claimed purpose of this bill is “To require a background check for every firearm sale.” The claimed reason for this is to prevent people who should not have guns from buying guns.
On the surface, that seems like a laudable goal. As a retired cop and a responsible gun owner, I don’t want crazy people and/or felons to have guns.
The problem becomes, how does one enforce such a goal? Being from California where “universal background checks” already exist, I can tell you how this will work and what legislation will follow “in order to strengthen the background check law.” This is yet another step down the slippery slope.
How do I know what will come? Because I already lived through this once.
HR-8 Will Lead Down a Very Slippery Slope
The first step will be enacting this law. This will require all sales, including private party sales, to be processed by a gun dealer with a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Initially, there will be exemptions for certain transactions, like between family members and such, but eventually those will disappear.
Not only does forcing dealers to process private party transfers burden the dealers for very little compensation, but it adds additional costs and inconveniences for the persons buying or selling their own private property. Those costs will continue to increase until they get to the same exorbitant levels that Californians are currently forced to pay, which at the time of this writing is hovering right around $100.
When HR-8 fails to reduce the “gun violence,” which it absolutely will fail to do, because criminals already get the majority of their guns via the black market, they will need to make changes to the law. Pretty soon, grandpa will not be able to give his grandson a gun without having the transaction processed by an FFL.
Once again, those changes will not impact the violent crimes where a gun is used, so they will need to do something else. Since most gun crimes involve handguns, they will say we need everyone to register all of their handguns. They will need to be registered that way the government can keep track of those guns, and if one is sold illegally, they can come after the registered owner and charge them with an illegal sale. It will be touted as “common sense” and is just being done “for the greater good.”
Pretty soon, they will say that they need to keep track of all rifle sales for the same reason. Now there will be a firearms registry, and anyone who does not register their guns will be a felon.
Yes, all of that happened in California, all under the guise of public safety, and yet none of that has lowered the rate of violent crime involving firearms in California. In fact, over the last several years, the violent crime rate in California has skyrocketed.
So What Do We Do?
I know this comment is coming, because I am not new to this fight. Someone will inevitably say “So, your suggestion is that we do nothing?” No, that is not remotely what I am saying.
I know this might sound like a crazy alternative, but instead of making more laws that will do nothing, and will just lead to even more laws, how about we just start enforcing the laws already on the books?
Since the overwhelming majority of “gun crime” is committed by repeat offenders, how about we prevent prosecutors from plea bargaining away gun charges. Rather than throw those charges away, hammer the offender and let them rot in prison.
When someone falsifies information on a 4473 (background check form), start prosecuting all of those. Back in 2017, according to a government report, only 12 out of 13,000 people who falsified information on the 4473 were prosecuted.
Stop giving people a slap on the wrist when they commit a straw purchase. For those who do not know that a “straw purchase” is, that is when someone who has a clean record goes into a gun store and buys a gun for a person who cannot pass the background check, or for people who cannot buy that particular gun new from a dealer (as in off-roster handguns in California). Currently, it seems the only people actually getting prosecuted for this crime are California cops buying off-roster guns and selling them to their friends, who themselves are not prohibited persons but just cannot legally purchase that gun new from a dealer because of California’s idiotic “Safe Handgun Roster.”
A prime example of this failure involves the murder of an Oklahoma police officer the day before she was to go off on maternity leave. Back in 2015, when a woman committed a straw purchase for her felon boyfriend, and that boyfriend used that gun to murder Officer Kerrie Orozco, the woman who made that purchase received a whopping one (1) year of probation for her role in the murder of a police officer.
Ooooh boy, that sentence sure sends a powerful message to would-be straw purchasers…
HR-8 Must Be Defeated
HR-8 is bad news, folks. I know this because I have been there, done that, and none of the laws did anything to deter criminals, and have made being a law-abiding gun owner much more difficult.
California is the gun control utopia that so many gun control groups love to point to. Yet the ridiculous levels of violent crime involving guns there should be proof enough that what California has done should not serve as a blueprint, but as a warning.
I highly recommend that you reach out to your elected representatives and politely tell them that you strongly oppose this bill. You can do so very easily using the the “take action” page over at Gun Owners of America. While you are there, you might consider becoming a member like Keith and I.
