The Senate Judiciary Committee will likely vote on the gun control measures today. Given the makeup of the committee, I think we’re very unlikely to be able to stop any of the bills from hitting the floor. We have Easter recess coming up shortly. A vote can happen at any time, but it’s likely to happen after the Easter Recess. I hope everyone written their Senators by now, and will make phone calls. We’re going to have a floor fight over major gun control proposals folks, and this hasn’t happened in a long time.
John Richardson mentioned one particular threat, S. 443. I’ve read the bill (text here), and I still can’t figure out what it’s making illegal that isn’t already illegal. It also includes a huge expansion of civil asset forfeiture, which I’m sure ATF is drooling over. That’s probably the true purpose of this bill, and why ATF has been pushing for it. I’m not really amenable to giving ATF the power to seize property and ask questions later. This will be abused.
Sounds like the vote has been put off.
“It also includes a huge expansion of civil asset forfeiture. . .
Just thinking aloud, given time this is where we could recruit allies from some outfits on the left-leaning side, who over the years have become bitter opponents of asset forfeiture as applied to the drug wars. I’m sure any new precedents established for asset forfeiture, for either issue, will cross over to affect all issues.
Still just thinking aloud, it will be interesting to watch the approaches to asset forfeiture that will be taken by some right-leaning outfits that allege to be our friends and allies.
Senator Feinstein said that veterans shouldn’t have access to “assault weapons†because of this “new thing called PTSD†that’s caused by the Iraq war.
Hell, they didn’t allow us access to our actual “assault weapons” — certainly not in possession of ammunition — while I was actually in the service, 45 years ago. That is, unless you were actually in the field in a combat zone. So, I guess whatever the logic behind that was, it inspired Feinstein.
Semi-seriously: I’ve just been doing some reading about troop mutinies, which were quite extensive during the Vietnam War, and of course fraggings. Just goes to show you that a little PTSD can go a long way.