Category: Gun Rights

The Democrats have pulled the amendment that would restore gun rights non-violent felons, so CCRBKA has pulled their support for Toomey-Manchin. They never should have done this in the first place. You don’t give up something concrete for a promise.

The Hill is reporting that the votes on the Toomey-Manchin Amendment still aren’t there. Let’s hope that holds until the votes.

10:41AM: Grassley, Cruz, and Graham announced a substitute amendment to the gun bill, which does not appear to contain any expansion of NICS requirements. It still has a number of measures we’ll like. It basically just encourages states to report records for people who were declared not-guilty by reason of insanity.

10:43AM: Expect a lot of crickets on the Senate Floor today as the kabuki is worked out. I’ll try to keep posting, but keep checking here. Like yesterday, when they break for lunch and come back, I’ll start a new post.

10:46AM: Here’s some of the votes the are missing.

10:46AM: John Cornyn (R-TX) is up on the floor noting the Second Amendment is not about hunting or recreation. “The Second Amendment has long been a bulwalk of individual liberty.” “Every mass shooting has occurred in a gun free zone,” well, that’s not quite true, but a lot of them are. Says no background check bill would have prevented Adam Lanza, since he murdered his mother to steal her guns.

10:53AM: Cornyn is introducing National Reciprocity as an Amendment. “This will essentially treat concealed carry licenses like drivers’ licenses.” Now he’s talking about the story of Suzanna Hupp. Hey, if the other side gets to tell victim stories, so do we. His amendment will be S.Amd 719. Entered. He’s saying the vote will be at 4:00PM.

11:04AM: Susan Collins (R-ME) is trying to lay down her gun credentials before backing the Toomey-Manchin amendment.

11:13AM: I have to laugh about this speech. While I don’t agree with the amendment Collins is backing, I do recognize that the anti-gun groups are being forced to cheer on a speech by a woman who is condemning so much of their ultimate agenda. She’s also making clear that even if the Toomey-Manchin amendment passes, she’s not vowing support for the final bill since there will be other anti-gun amendments allowed for votes.

11:16AM: John Barrasso (R-WY) is now talking about a different amendment topic–restricting state and local governments from releasing gun owner information to the public. He tells stories of domestic violence victims who have had their information published and guns stolen from homes put on a map.

11:21AM: Barrasso talks about supporting concealed carry reciprocity because he has a concealed carry license and would like to carry in other states. He called for people to support his amendment on gun owner privacy and Cornyn’s amendment. And now we’re silent…

11:23AM: Joe Manchin just took the floor and asked for permission to speak for 45 minutes. Ugh. His speech starts out with how much he loves the NRA. He even brags about carrying his card in his wallet and reads every magazine. It then turns into complaining about their legislative alerts and how he claims they aren’t accurate.

11:29AM: Manchin says that he’s talked to “all his gun owners” back in West Virginia. Really? Every single one? He also says that over 80% of them support his amendment. He also says that he has never written or signed a perfect bill, that they are all screwed up. Um, voters in West Virginia…you elected a guy who brags about making bad laws?

11:33AM: Manchin says that opponents to his amendment are people who don’t want to follow any laws–don’t want to have a license to drive on public roads or pay any taxes at all. Wow.

11:38AM: He turns to the terror angle and says that terrorists can go down to any gun show and buy fully automatic firearms without any background checks. He also says that there are people making a living selling firearms illegally, so his bill will make it more illegal.

11:41AM: Manchin tries to tie an NSSF survey saying that 25% of modern sporting rifle owners bought at least part of their rifle online, so that shows how scary the online marketplace of guns is and why it needs more regulations. There’s so much fail and so many distortions in his claims that it’s absurd.

11:44AM: Manchin now specifically encourages gun owners to break his law. He says that posting public announcements on bulletin boards around town and then selling them without background checks is perfectly legal under his amendment. No, it’s not. That’s illegal under his amendment, and Manchin is now encouraging gun owners to become felons under his language.

11:57AM: Manchin is off. Back to the crickets on the Senate Floor.

11:58AM: I think our music today is Handel. If it’s not, it’s something Baroque.

12:02PM: While there are crickets on the floor, they are having a protest outside the Capitol. Apparently they have issues with audio.

12:08PM: Kirsten Gillibrand is urging everyone to join the Toomey-Manchin amendment. She notes the victims deserve better! Victims are important now. Unlike when she had an A grade form the NRA before becoming Senator, I guess. Now she’s telling victim stories. It’s For the Children(TM). For the Children, we need to make gun trafficking double plus secret illegal. She’s being really over the top in her speech. She notes that the current penalties are just paperwork violations. Yeah. Paperwork violations that can land you a quarter million dollar fine and 5 to 10 years in federal prison, depending on what you lied about.

12:15PM: She’s yields the floor to Blumenthal (D-CT). He is urging his colleges to “heed and hear the families of Newtown.” I feel very sorry for what happened to them, but I didn’t have anything to do with it, and none of these proposals would have done anything to prevent it. I’m not going to agree to give up my freedoms for the acts of a lunatic. “We have to do something about the guns,” was the message from the Newtown families. You know, I’m more interested in doing something about the lunatics. If they can’t buy guns, it’s not like we restrict pressure cookers. “Let us choose love!” Oh please. Why do people vote for politicians who spew this kind of dreck? Hey, I love freedom. So yeah, let us choose love. He also wants to make illegal trafficking double illegal, even though the law we already has is poorly enforced. “We can make killers less lethal!” So you’re going to ban pressure cookers? We have to ban ordinary magazines For the Children(TM).

12:31PM: Now Blumenthal is telling everyone how much he cares about police officers. Because of that we have to ban 9mm semi-automatic pistols and “hollow point bullets.” He noted those bullets pierced the “bullletproof vest” No, they are resistant vests. Sometimes they fail, even for bullets they are rated for. He notes that their “bullet proof armor” could not have defended themselves against Adam Lanza’s AR-15. Well, they couldn’t have defended themselves against grandpa’s hunting rifle either. Any rifle round will go through soft body armor. He reiterates we have to choose love. I will, and I love freedom, Senator.

12:38PM: Bob Menendez is up now, to talk about how we need to ban assault weapons. Well, you know, we ban underaged hookers, but how well does that law work? This corrupt asshole has no business lecturing anyone. Menendez is upset over National Reciprocity. Good. I can understand why. Criminals really don’t like honest citizens being able to defend themselves. Bob Mendez says in 5 seconds, assault weapons can fire 52 rounds. That’s assuming it’s an M16 with the selector set on Full Auto. That’s not what anyone is talking about and he knows it. He brings up the Street Sweeper, even though that was reclassified as a destructive device years ago. He believes we have a responsibility to take an assault weapons off the street. I think we ought to take him off the streets.

12:48PM: Tom Coburn is up right now. “The issue in front of us now is how do we protect the Second Amendment right, and the Supreme Court rulings.” “I believe I actually have an answer.” He notes there’s a lot of problems with the “do not buy” list, as he characterizes it. He notes that most gun owners don’t really want to sell guns to felons. He’s basically hawking his proposal we linked to earlier. It almost sounds like using his system would be voluntary. He’s offering his proposal as an amendment. It would also protect the rights of veterans. He notes it would limit the power of ATF to issue demand letters. This would be a good thing, as this is often abused. Using the system would be free, it sounds like.

1:07PM: Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) is speaking about his amendment to protect the Second Amendment rights of veterans. It would restore rights for people who are unable to manage their own finances.

1:19PM: Chris Murphy (D-CT) is up. I’m sure this will be another sob story trying to emotionally blackmail others into voting his way. Chris Murphy is very angry. You know, they have counseling for that. He also notes that the firearm could fire six bullets a second. This is a lie. That is the cyclic rate of the M16, which is not the issue here. Lanza’s rifle as not an M16. These people can’t win without lying. They can’t even win lying now, fortunately. Now he’s hawking Manchin-Toomey. It’s the 40% lie again. He’s continuing the lie about these being military weapons. No military in the world issues a semi-automatic rifle.

1:33PM: Grassley is proposing his amendment, along with Cruz and Graham. He’s offering it as a substitute. There’s a bit of law-and-order Republican fun in this bill, but I’ll take that over Manchin-Toomey.

1:51PM: Grassley yields the floor and suggests the absence of a quorum. This forces a roll call and let’s the senate stay in session. This also likely means no one is immediately waiting to speak.

1:52PM: Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) is up on the floor, explaining why there are some sticking points with some of these bills. He’s describing some of the troubles ordinary gun owners can run into having to do private sales through an FFL.

1:58PM: The floor goes silent again.

2:05PM: Jack Reed (D-RI) is up saying good thing about the Toomey-Manchin amendment.

2:09PM: Richard Shelby (R-AL) is now up pointing out that “this legislation,” whatever it might be at this point, wouldn’t have stopped Newtown.

2:20PM: Manchin is now asking Shelby a question on the floor. He asks about all the great things in his bill, according to him. Shelby responds that he fundamentally disagrees with his colleague on what these measures would do.

2:21PM: Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is up now. By the way, this is the kabuki. There will be a vote, that’s why they’re all wanting to have their say today. Lindsey Graham notes that there are thousands if not millions of magazines already out there that hold more than ten rounds. “It wouldn’t affect criminals one bit” Graham notes the best way to protect kids is to have a security officer present in the school. “Don’t kid yourself that having to reload is going to deter a shooter.” He’s recounting the story from Atlanta of the women who emptied a .38 revolver into a home invader, hit him 5 times and the guy drove off. “The reason I own [an AR-15] is that I like to shoot.” He’s noting that AR-15s are very good for times when law and order break down, like after a hurricane. This is a real concern for people who live in hurricane prone areas, like South Carolina. “It’s not the gun, it’s who owns it.” Graham notes that 1/3rd of assault in the US are by more than one attacker.

2:31PM: Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is up speaking of Boston. S.Res 101, condemning the attacks in Boston is brought up. The measure is agreed to via unanimous consent.

2:43PM: Senator Cowan (D-MA) is up speaking of Boston.

2:47PM: John McCain (R-AZ) is up explaining why he’s supporting Toomey-Manchin. McCain has always been for banning private sales, so this is not much of a surprise he’d get behind this.

2:52PM: The White House is e-mailing it’s list urging people to call.

2:53PM: McCain is explaining why he thinks Manchin-Toomey is constitutional. Like other supporters, he points to the utterly useless provision that creates a 15 year prison sentence for misusing records. Who’s going to enforce that?

2:57PM: Manchin thanks McCain for his support.

2:58PM: Tom Harkin (D-IA) offers an amendment related to mental health services.

3:07PM: Leahy (D-VT) is up now. He’s praising the Manchin-Toomey bill. He also has an amendment. S.Amend. 713. His amendment would seem to have to do with straw purchasing and illegal trafficking. I’m guessing this is an alternative to Gillibrand’s bill. Leahey decrees the Republican amendment “A weak and counterproductive alternative,” and complains that this was just sprung on them, and there have been no hearings. You know, kind of like what they tried to do with Manchin-Toomey.

3:20PM: Cruz is up defending Grassley-Cruz-Graham. Cruz brings up the PoliceOne Survey on the floor.

3:35PM: Schumer is challenging Cruz on background checks. Cruz argues that extending to private sellers is consequential, not trivial. Schumer is challenging that no one is attempting to create registration. Except that’s what the 4473 can easily become, and Toomey-Manchin does not prevent ATF from using 4473s from defunct FFLs.

3:37PM: Manchin notes that private transactions were excluded, except the truth is, the language is so bad. Cruz has the correct understanding of what this does, that it applies to any advertisement. Cruz notes that this is just very consequential. I agree. It’s confusing, and it could land people in jail through the confusion. If you ever advertised a gun for sale, you could then not sell it later in a private sale, even one not arranged through the Internet, unless they were family.

3:42PM: Manchin is challenging him on whether it isn’t best to wait 48 hours after introduction to vote on a bill or amendment. Cruz snarikly asks if Manchin wants to delay the coming vote, and that his colleague was part of the negotiations. Cruz knows it’s the dems that want to get this vote over with, so they can move on to other things.

3:43PM: Schumer is up now, appealing to make this a positive day, and vote for real gun control. He’s defending the Manchin-Toomey bill. Schumer says all this registration talk is paranoid delusions. What happens, Senator, to all the 4473s when gun dealers close?

3:48PM: Mike Johanns (R-NE): Speaking against Toomey-Manchin. He is cosponsoring Grassley-Cruz-Graham.

3:54PM: Toomey is up defending his deal. He’s noting the Second Amendment right doesn’t apply to children, criminals, and the mentally ill. He’s suggesting his bill does things the actual language of the bill just doesn’t support. Dave Kopel asks whether this means, in the Senator’s view, that Congress could ban practice by the young under adult supervision? Now he’s talking about the FOPA travel provisions, which are so poorly drafted as to be worse than useless, but that actually guts current FOPA protections.

4:00PM: TIME TO VOTE ON MANCHIN-TOOMEY

4:02PM: Manchin is up asking for votes for his and Toomey’s amendment. He, naturally, notes that the vote is For the Children (TM).

4:03PM: Grassley is up against Manchin’s amendments, noting background checks don’t work, and only work when combined with gun registration.

4:04PM: The roll is being called, so they can declare a quorum.

4:12PM: Voting is proceeding. Lautenberg is on the floor and voted. He was not expected to return to the Senate.

4:27PM: Manchin-Toomey goes down 54-46. It failed to achieve cloture.

4:29PM: The Grassley-Cruz-Graham substitute is up for a vote.

4:45PM: The Grassley-Cruz-Graham substitute fails 52-48.

4:46PM: The Leahy-Collins amendment is up for a vote. Cruz asks people to vote against, because it could ensnare honest citizens. This is the trafficking bill.

5:00PM: The Leahy-Collins Amendment fails 58-42.

5:03PM: Here we go with the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Amendment.

5:04PM: Cornyn’s is speaking on behalf of his amendment, noting that it would be like a drivers’ license.

5:04PM: Schumer notes that every single police officer in America will tell you concealed carry would be a disaster. Really? He notes it’ll be mass chaos. Dogs and cats living together! It’s offensive to the New York way of life. Schumer should realize the Bill of Rights is a “way of life” for all Americans.

5:16PM: The Cornyn Amendment on National Reciprocity fails 57-43.

5:19PM: Feinstein Amendment banning so-called assault weapons and magazines holding more than ten rounds is up.

5:20PM: Feinstein is dismayed, which means I’m a happy camper. “Easy to shoot big clips!” “Large velocity guns.” She’s not making any sense at all. “This is a majority body!” We’ll see if she even cracks a majority. Oh man, she’s really upset. Good!

5:22PM: Chuck Grassley: “This would be the largest ban on guns in the history of our Republic.” Grassley goes on to describe how useless this kind of ban would be. He notes that it would not be constitutional. Grassley was getting pretty animated.

5:34PM: Feinstein Amendment goes down to defeat 40-60. DEFEATED!

5:40PM: The Burr Amendment is up.

5:40PM: Richard Burr (R-NC) speaks on behalf of his amendment to restore the gun rights of veterans who were puts in NICS because they can’t handle their own finances. This removes them without them having to petition.

5:41PM: Schumer is standing up against gun rights for veterans. Schumer is animated. He must really hate the rights of veterans.

6:00PM: The Burr Amendment fails by a vote of 56-44.

6:01PM: The Blumenthal-Lautenberg Amendment is up.

6:02PM: Senator Richard Blumenthal brings up the magazine ban, suggesting it’s only criminals who only use these things. But really, we ought to do this For the Children(TM).

6:03PM: Grassley rises in opposition, noting a study by the DOJ that showed the magazine ban had no affect on gun violence. He points out there are millions of these magazines out there, they are in common use, and the amendment is unconstitutional.

6:11PM: The Blumenthal-Lautenberg Amendment fails by a vote of 46-54. DEFEATED!

That will be all the voting on guns measures today. Voting on the Harkin Amendment will resume tomorrow. This has been a good day. Both magazine bans and gun bans failed to achieve even a bare majority.

Thus endeth our coverage for today.

The Senate will vote tomorrow (Wednesday) in the afternoon. We’ll see if it really happens this time. Stay tuned, as we will cover it live.

UPDATE: Politico says the same.

The Senate is in recess currently, but will return at 2:15 to resume debate, which should happen until 3:30 or so. We’ll be doing live updates here when that begins.

2:15PM: The Senate is now returning.

2:16PM: Harry Reid is speaking to the media. So far it’s about the Second Boston Massacre. He says they will continue forward and have votes as soon as they can. He says perhaps today or later.

2:20PM: Reid is now taking questions from the media. I’ll update this timestamp if they ask anything about gun control. A reporter asks of momentum has been lost on background checks. Harry Reid notes he has hay fever, but says there’s significant momentum. Notes that their party caucus was as moving as any he can remember. Joe Manchin gave a moving, tearful presentation. Blah, blah, blah. He notes that they have the wind at their back, and the American people agree with them. Reid notes that Cho couldn’t have passed a background check, but he did, Harry. Someone asks about concealed carry. Harry Reid said it’s like baseball, it depends on the bill, but that he’d look at it. We’re back to questions about Boston and terrorism.

2:27PM: Back to the Senate floor, where the crickets are chirping.

2:33PM: I should mention that the more you’re hearing crickets, the better off we are. When they come out on to the floor to vote, that usually means some kind of deal has been reached, and the what follows will be pretty much kabuki theater. If you’re following along on C-SPAN, hearing Chopin is good. Chopin is our friend.

2:37PM: I should note that whatever deal might be reached doesn’t imply it will go badly for us. It could be a deal that involves acceptance Toomey-Manchin will go down to defeat, and either be replaced by something else, or we just scrap all this nonsense and move on. A deal is not necessary defeat. Wait until votes are posted. In the mean time, hope for Chopin. I like Chopin anyway. Good background music while I work.

2:42PM: C-SPAN is replaying the speeches from the Senate floor earlier. I hate it when they do this because it makes it harder for me to hear if we’ve transitioned to a live speaker. Music to speech is a much easier transition than speech to speech.

2:55PM: “The week is finally here,” notes Chris Murphy (D-CT), where the Senate gets to vote on gun control. How exciting. Speaking too soon hopefully. Now he’s recounting what he was doing when he first heard of Sandy Hook. He’s also reminding us that this is For the Children(TM). He’s continuing with his stories of the murdered children. Apparently these are the last few. Now he’s reminding everyone that the NRA hates Newtown victims and children because they won’t go along with punishing millions of American gun owners for the acts of a lunatic.

3:14PM: Chris Murphy (D-CT) is still up talking about murder victims, like any of us have anything to do with any of this.

3:22PM: Now he’s talking about being a responsible gun owner. This is a subject he knows nothing about. He’s talking about Glock 9s and high capacity ammunition. He has no business legislating or bloviating on this subject. He’s speaking now of gun accidents, and not noting that gun accidents are at an all time low, largely because of spreading a culture of safety through education, something Chris Murphy has never spent a minute of his time doing.

3:29PM: Murphy motions to extend the debate time until 5:30.

3:31PM: Back to Chopin.

4:16PM: Now Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is up speaking. Starting off with a statement about Boston. He’s now running down a list of crazies with guns none of us had anything to do with. He’s now saying Cho bought guns online and at a gun store without a background check. This is a lie. He’s sponsoring a magazine ban on behalf of Lautenberg. He’s thanking the victims for being courageous. Why is it courageous to lobby your lawmakers?

4:24PM: Blumenthal yields the floor. He suggested that the vote may be “as early as tomorrow,” meaning it’s likely not happening today.

4:26PM: Chopin!

4:31PM: Mitch McConnel is up asking for a resolution honoring Margaret Thatcher.

4:33PM: Back to Chopin.

4:57PM: Still short on votes.

4:59PM: Barbara Boxer is up. She’s noting her state has been hit too often by gun violence, including mass shootings. I guess California must have weak gun laws! She’s speaking about Patrick Purdy and the Stockton Massacre. Now she’s talking about an assault weapon attack in San Francisco in 1993. I’d note that was years after California banned them. She has a chart up showing a map of gun violence. She is noting that 300 million Americans own guns, and speak of Americans owning many, many guns as if there’s something wrong with that. 87 people die every day from gun violence, she says. That number just keeps magically going up, and up. Ah, yes, she got to that number by counting suicides, if you do the math. Killed or wounded in 2012 in a mass shooting: 175. I think more people were killed by their bathtubs last year. How does anyone vote for these people? This is just such crap. Another lifesize printout of a powerpoint slide: number of people killed or wounded in K-12 shooting since 1999: 262. I’ll bet more were killed in accidents on the way home from school. For the Children(TM)! Now she’s talking about her school security bill. She notes it doesn’t include armed security. So how is it worth anything?

5:26PM: Debate extended until 6PM.

5:28PM: Ted Cruz is up talking about Margaret Thatcher.

5:42PM: Ben Cardin (D-MD) is up saying we need to ban magazines and scary guns. He says that this will have zero impact on legitimate hunters or legitimate shooters. He can kiss my ass. Now he’s upping the number of private sales to 50% of all gun purchases. Hey, if you’re going to lie, why not make it worth your while?

5:50PM: Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is up talking about climate change. It’s a right wing conspiracy, or something. One of his slides made it look like he was planning to take people, and turn them into pizza.

6:04PM: Sheldon Whitehouse makes his contribution to stopping CO2 pollution by stepping off the platform, and the Senate goes into recess. There will be no vote today. There could still be a vote, but the caucusing will continue.

We want to carry firearms for self-protection. We’re told by groups like VPC that we’re paranoid and delusional, and that our irrational fears ought not to be the basis of public policy. But the irrational fears of foreigners about the level of violence in the US? Totally grounds for making public policy.

UPDATE: Kerry’s claim gets three Pinocchios from the WaPo. Some days you wonder if gun control supporters even know how to be factual.

Where we’re likely going to have a vote in the Senate. Please call your Senators, even if you have done so already. You can find contact info here. We can win this. Graham is opposed. Jeff Flake is opposed. Let’s give them a vote, and send them packing!

UPDATE: Harry Reid is on the floor right now touting SAF/CCRBKA support for this legislation.

UPDATE: Grassley is up speaking, saying they don’t have the votes. Grassley is acknowledging the bill is flawed, and opposition is not coming form the fringe. Sounds like Grassley is also suggesting there will be some kind of alternative that the anti-gun folks oppose. Coburn?

UPDATE: Dick Durbin is up, reminding us that we do this For the Children(TM). We also have to do it for Gabby, but mostly, For the Children(TM).

UPDATE: It just kind of kills me that people just got blown up in Boston, and what is the Democrats’ priority in the Senate? Gun control.

UPDATE: Durbin is dragging out the thoroughly debunked 40% number.

UPDATE: Durbin is off the floor. We’re now waiting on the floor for another speaker. It’s not a fore drawn conclusion there will be a vote today. Obviously they want a vote, but it may not happen today.

UPDATE: *crickets* (or rather Chopin, on C-SPAN)

UPDATE: Harry Reid has motioned to extend the debate to 3:30PM, and put the Senate in recess until 2:15PM.

UPDATE: Coverage will resume here.

Toomey is moving offices tomorrow, which means phones and computers will be down, just in time for a vote on the Amendment he helped forge with Manchin? Too convenient for him by far. It’s almost like they don’t want to hear from us.

When this all started, CTD took a lot of crap because they pulled down gun sales in the wake of Newtown. Now, from their blog, it looks like they are supporting the Toomey-Manchin amendment? This is making me glad I do my gun shopping at MidwayUSA and Brownells. Let us hope that Reid still remains short on votes for this. I think the struggle to come up with the votes is a clear indication that this was an unnecessary maneuver. If the votes are barely there for this, Schumer’s bill didn’t stand a chance:

First, let’s start from the point where we lost the cloture vote. The vote lost by a huge margin with 68 senators voting in favor of cloture. Once reached, it was evident something was going to go to the floor and Schumer’s background check bill was simply draconian, bad, evil, and needed to be stopped.

The cloture vote was just on the Motion to Proceed. That didn’t mean anything. That didn’t mean anything other than a lot of Senators wanted to go on record with votes on gun stuff. That can be for reasons that favor us, or for reasons that don’t. You will note that NRA did not score the cloture vote on the Motion to Proceed, but threatened to score the cloture vote to end debate on the final bill. That means it was not panic time.

If you’re looking for legal analysis by someone who actually has a law degree, and is widely regarded as an expert on this topic, see this post over at The Volokh Conspiracy. In short the registration guarantees and the new FOPA rules are useless. Actually, worse than useless:

The result of the disparity is “pro-gun” provisions which are actually very strong anti-gun provisions: The supposed ban on federal firearms registration authorizes federal gun registration. The supposed strengthening of FOPA’s interstate transportation protection exempts two of the worst states (the reason why FOPA was needed in the first place), and provides any easy path for every other abusive state to make FOPA inapplicable.

Read the whole thing. We have to kill this. Call your senators. And given the late developments, be sure to remind them that Alan Gottlieb doesn’t speak for you.