Connecticut”™s U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy have joined with their Massachusetts colleague Sen. Edward Markey in presenting legislation designed to add a new layer of regulatory oversight to gun dealers.
In the proposed Keeping Gun Dealers Honest Act, the permitted number of inspections of gun dealers by investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would be increased from one to three per year. The legislation also seeks to increase criminal penalties for dealers who intentionally commit record-keeping offenses that aid gun trafficking, and it would expand the level of discretion for the ATF in issuing gun licenses while providing the agency with what the group of Democrat senators described as “more flexible enforcement mechanisms.”
Although the senators insisted the majority of gun dealers follow the law, they noted data from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence that found five percent of gun dealers supplied 90 percent of crime guns used nationwide. U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives in May.
“This bill will give law enforcement much-needed resources to help keep illegal firearms off the streets,” Blumenthal said. “Giving ATF the tools it needs to take aggressive action against the small number of bad-apple gun dealers who supply the vast majority of crime guns is simply common sense.”
“Illegal guns often come from a few bad-apple gun dealers,” said Murphy. “Cracking down on these dealers will help make our communities safer.”
If you support this proposal then you must support a keeping homeowners honest act. While the vast majority of homeowners are law abiding citizens, studies would suggest that over 90% of illegal drugs distributed in any given area are distributed by a few bad apples. To have all homes periodically searched to prevent illegal drug sales is just common sense.
Nailed the idiots!
There is no such thing as “gun violence”. This is a focus-group-driven buzzword and talking point to create an imaginary bogeyman as the main anti 2nd Amendment propaganda tool. There are PEOPLE who commit violence with guns, but there are many more people who commit violence without them.
And, since the term “gun violence” is a catchword/cliche, the title suggests an unattainable goal. People have been robbing and killing other people, using the weapons of the day, since the beginning of man on this planet, which identifies the real issue – controlling criminal impulses in humans, not the otherwise legal instruments they use to commit crimes.
Anyone who doesn’t realize and/or acknowledge this isn’t thinking, s/he is ‘feeling’, and our liberty cannot depend upon what anybody ‘feels’.
Given that this is Connecticut, my response is nonetheless the same: “One-word answer – NO!”
They are using data from the Brady’s, that alone tells us that they have absolutely no interest in the safety of citizens and every interest in making civilian ownership of firearms more difficult.
Wait, wait, wait….
Are we talking about the very same ATF that strong-armed certain FFL’s into completing transfers they didn’t want to do, which transfers those FFL’s pro-actively tipped off the ATF as being highly questionable, and which transferee’s turned out to be ***known*** to the ATF as ineligible but were being monitored as part of their ‘Fast and Furious’ operation?
They want the “Keeping Gun Dealers Honest Act†to empower **that** ATF even MORE?