The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Text of Proposed Coburn Amendment to S.649

Bartholomew Roberts · April 21, 2013, 05:35 AM

As I think most of you know, I don't think you can deal in good faith with Schumer, et al; because I believe that they do want to ban guns from most of the American public and are working on an incrementalist strategy to do that.

That is one of the intriguing things about the Coburn amendment though, IF it can deliver what is promised (a big IF admittedly) - recordless background checks, then the antis are going to hate it and shoot it down if my belief is correct.

I think the political theater benefits of proposing a background check that covers MORE sales than Manchin-Toomey; but that lays the foundation for recordless interstate gun sales between law-abiding citizens may open some eyes in the "Nobody wants to take your guns" crowd. This bill has great potential as an incrementalist strategy to work in our favor for once. Once you can establish private sales without any recordkeeping and it works, the obvious argument becomes "Why are FFLs keeping all of these records?"

And like gc70, I am concerned about the potential of background checks to become a wedge issue. Schumer tried to sell his bill as "reasonable background checks on all sales" when we all know it was much worse. The "much worse" aspects got ZERO coverage in the press which led to many people here asking "What is wrong with background checks?" That is a snake that has to be defanged somehow.

I've also been reading a lot of gun grabber assessments of what they think they did wrong, and I can tell you one thing ALL of them agree on. The next time this happens, they aren't going to wait 4 months to push massive gun control. They are going to come at it hard and fast before we can rally support - and with debate on S.649 already started and the bill hanging out in limbo, they can mounting a major push on gun control in 30 hours right now. My guess is next time it happens, we will get maybe one day while Bloomberg coordinates his media circus and then it will be a full on simultaneous assault in the media and legislature with many preformatted bills hitting the desks the next day.

April 21, 2013, 05:35 AM	#14
Bartholomew Roberts member Join Date: June 12, 2000 Location: Texas and Oklahoma area Posts: 8,462	As I think most of you know, I don't think you can deal in good faith with Schumer, et al; because I believe that they do want to ban guns from most of the American public and are working on an incrementalist strategy to do that. That is one of the intriguing things about the Coburn amendment though, IF it can deliver what is promised (a big IF admittedly) - recordless background checks, then the antis are going to hate it and shoot it down if my belief is correct. I think the political theater benefits of proposing a background check that covers MORE sales than Manchin-Toomey; but that lays the foundation for recordless interstate gun sales between law-abiding citizens may open some eyes in the "Nobody wants to take your guns" crowd. This bill has great potential as an incrementalist strategy to work in our favor for once. Once you can establish private sales without any recordkeeping and it works, the obvious argument becomes "Why are FFLs keeping all of these records?" And like gc70, I am concerned about the potential of background checks to become a wedge issue. Schumer tried to sell his bill as "reasonable background checks on all sales" when we all know it was much worse. The "much worse" aspects got ZERO coverage in the press which led to many people here asking "What is wrong with background checks?" That is a snake that has to be defanged somehow. I've also been reading a lot of gun grabber assessments of what they think they did wrong, and I can tell you one thing ALL of them agree on. The next time this happens, they aren't going to wait 4 months to push massive gun control. They are going to come at it hard and fast before we can rally support - and with debate on S.649 already started and the bill hanging out in limbo, they can mounting a major push on gun control in 30 hours right now. My guess is next time it happens, we will get maybe one day while Bloomberg coordinates his media circus and then it will be a full on simultaneous assault in the media and legislature with many preformatted bills hitting the desks the next day.