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
Republicans leaving anti-rights restoration provision in appropriations bill :: 12/13/2014
Despite a big win in November, Republicans are ceding to the wishes of Barack Obama while alienating their conservative base, political commentator James Simpson noted in a Thursday American Thinker analysis of the 2015 spending bill being negotiated at this writing. Among the dangers he lists include a provision that will allow for changes after the vote, along with continued funding for executive amnesty and Obamacare, with a special notation that “Provisions supporting gun rights were removed.”
“[B]etween 40 and 50 Republican representatives have already jumped ship and are opposing the Republican leadership,” Gun Owners of America told members in a Tuesday alert describing rank and file push-back against what is being widely perceived as a GOP betrayal and sell-out. “This means that at least a fifth -- and maybe more -- of [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi’s minions will have to be ordered to support [House Speaker John] Boehner for it to pass. And Pelosi has made it clear to the press that the bill will have to be altered to be satisfactory to her in order for her to provide those votes.
GOA stood alone among national gun rights groups in November, warning that passing the bill will result in giving Congressional Democrats control of Congress for the next 10 months, as the “so-called ‘long-term CR [continuing resolution]’ ... would set policy and spending until the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2015).” Their solution was to call instead for “a ‘short-term CR’ into January, February, or March. This would allow the newly elected Republican Congress to set spending and policy for the federal government for most of next year.”
One of the changes the GOP could insist on now would be to restore funding closed off through an appropriations maneuver by anti-gun New York Democrat Chuck Schumer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “to investigate or act upon applications for relief from Federal firearms disabilities submitted by individuals.” Unless and until that is done, “[T]housands upon thousands of Americans who are disqualified from owning firearms because of non-violent federal felonies have no way to get their gun rights back,” GOA noted in January.
The prohibition on relief funding remains in the ATF expense section of the bill. The section beginning on page 139 notes “That none of the funds appropriated herein shall be available to investigate or act upon applications for relief from Federal firearms disabilities under 23 section 925(c) of title 18, United States Code.”
At this writing, as things are unfolding in real time, it appears a revolt has almost killed the bill, and floor votes may not be enough to allow it to pass, particularly if opposing Democrats hold fast to their reasons for objection. If that happens, Matthew Boyle of Breitbart notes, “congressional leadership is planning to change tack and move forward with a three-month stopgap spending bill, or a clean Continuing Resolution.”
If that happens, GOA will once again have proven itself as a uniquely effective “no-compromise” national leader in the gun rights advocacy community. Whether that will be widely recognized by even more gun owners than currently count themselves among its supporters, and repaid in kind with a commensurate merited increase in membership support, remains to be seen.
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