PA Bill Number: HB335

Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.

Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...

Last Action: Removed from table

Last Action Date: May 1, 2024

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Predictions coming true: More 'UBC' action on horizon :: 01/26/2015

As the 2015 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) show winds down today in Las Vegas, a new battle front over so-called “universal background checks” (UBC) is shaping up in Arizona, and it is all-too-familiar to Second Amendment advocates like Alan Gottlieb.

Freshman Democrat State Rep. Randall Friese has introduced legislation to require background checks on private transfers of firearms. If the storyline unfolds the way it did in Gottlieb’s home state of Washington, and here in Nevada, the proposals will fall short in the legislature, and then there will be a push by the gun prohibition lobby to pass a citizen initiative.

Anti-gunners passed Initiative 594 last fall in the Evergreen State, and it’s evident they took notes. Nevada first went through the legislative process, and now gun owners there are facing an increasingly well-oiled effort to push such checks, with backing from anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other wealthy elitists.

It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that somebody was taking notes during the Washington campaign. With money as a weapon, Second Amendment activists are up against what appears to be a spreading juggernaut.

Gottlieb was among the first to predict what is shaping up as a war of attrition. As head of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, he battled I-594 in Washington and offered an alternative measure that was defeated. He is now a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging the new statute.

As politics make strange bedfellows, another effort to require such background checks in Vermont is being criticized by an influential Democrat, State Sen. Dick Sears of Bennington, according to Watchdog.org. He was quoted saying that he doubts the measure is necessary, and likely unconstitutional.

In Arizona, HB 2118 would require transfers to go through federally licensed firearms dealers. Two years ago in Washington, a similar bill was proposed, but Gottlieb tried to work with supporters to soften the measure and include exemptions for people with concealed pistol licenses. He also wanted to abolish the state pistol registry.

Instead, that registry is expanding because of the new law, which critics, including Gottlieb, said would happen. Anti-gunners pooh-poohed that argument, but he was right.

Almost as if choreographed, Seattle-based gun control proponents launched their initiative campaign. Backed by local billionaire Nick Hanauer, and ultimately Bloomberg, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and others, the I-594 campaign was awash with money; more than enough to drown out the opposition.

Still, many observers note that there may have been something telling about the vote. Anti-gunners insist that the public supports background checks overwhelmingly, yet I-594 passed by only 59 percent, when theoretically the margin should have been much higher.

Gun owner ranks are divided on the issue. While nobody in the firearms community wants guns to fall into the hands of criminals, they also dislike being treated like criminals when they exercise a constitutionally delineated fundamental civil right. The very nature of a background check, many say, amounts to be considered guilty until proven innocent.

Gottlieb’s lawsuit is spearheaded by the Second Amendment Foundation, which has a modest, yet very busy, display here at the SHOT Show. He’s been spending lots of time here watching the news, trading messages and chatting with activists.

While the SHOT Show may be over today, the fight against onerous UBC laws is just beginning. If anti-gunners can push such laws in Western states, where gun ownership is a strongly defended tradition, it will become easier — at least in theory — to pass such laws everywhere.

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http://www.examiner.com/article/predictions-coming-true-more-ubc-action-on-horizon