The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Obama's Anti-Gun Budget Bill

gc70 · February 19, 2012, 12:00 PM

Here is my assessment of the six anti-gun proposals listed above from the 2013 budget.

The gun-walking prohibition is too new to be overturned; this proposal is political posturing.

The proposal to scrap military firearms and brass is probably the least achievable. The proposal directly affects firearms ownership (buying surplus guns) and use (shooting reloaded ammo), so it is easy for legislators to understand. It also affects lots of guns owners, so there would be a large and very loud pro-gun backlash against the proposal.

The Canadian export licensing and C&R re-importation proposals are probably reasonably achievable. While the proposals directly affect firearms owners, the number of people actually involved in the activities is probably pretty limited and their voices would have little weight by themselves with legislators. These are proposals that pro-gun legislators could probably accept as part of a bargain because they could be perceived as only impacting a few voters.

The proposals to change the language prohibiting FFL records centralization and releasing tracing data are more interesting. The proposals are probably reasonably achievable because they do not actually eliminate the prohibitions. Changing the language from a permanent ban to a continuing ban could be passed off as simply making the wording consistent with other parts of the law. A change in wording with no real, current effect would be tougher to fight vigorously and even harder to resist in a horse-trading situation. While changing the wording might have no current effect, it would make a future fight over the prohibitions more difficult to sustain.

February 19, 2012, 12:00 PM	#15
gc70 Senior Member Join Date: May 24, 2005 Location: North Carolina Posts: 2,903	Here is my assessment of the six anti-gun proposals listed above from the 2013 budget. The gun-walking prohibition is too new to be overturned; this proposal is political posturing. The proposal to scrap military firearms and brass is probably the least achievable. The proposal directly affects firearms ownership (buying surplus guns) and use (shooting reloaded ammo), so it is easy for legislators to understand. It also affects lots of guns owners, so there would be a large and very loud pro-gun backlash against the proposal. The Canadian export licensing and C&R re-importation proposals are probably reasonably achievable. While the proposals directly affect firearms owners, the number of people actually involved in the activities is probably pretty limited and their voices would have little weight by themselves with legislators. These are proposals that pro-gun legislators could probably accept as part of a bargain because they could be perceived as only impacting a few voters. The proposals to change the language prohibiting FFL records centralization and releasing tracing data are more interesting. The proposals are probably reasonably achievable because they do not actually eliminate the prohibitions. Changing the language from a permanent ban to a continuing ban could be passed off as simply making the wording consistent with other parts of the law. A change in wording with no real, current effect would be tougher to fight vigorously and even harder to resist in a horse-trading situation. While changing the wording might have no current effect, it would make a future fight over the prohibitions more difficult to sustain.