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: Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 6, 2024
Shannon Watts: Hold All Gun Sales Until The ATF Is Good And Ready :: 07/22/2015
Former Monsanto shill and current AstroTurf organizer Shannon Watts is at it again. This time in a CNN op-ed bemoaning the ability of recent terrorist shooters to pass background checks. How does semantics come in to play? It’s all in what’s NOT said . . .
Watts has stated,
We’re still learning the facts about what happened in Chattanooga, however, recent media reports indicate the gunman took advantage of the online gun sale loophole and purchased at least one of his firearms where he knew he could buy a gun with no background check, no questions asked.
Left out of this statement: the fact that he also purchased some of his weapons after passing a background check.
Regarding the Charleston shooter,
And a month has passed since the Charleston shooting, and we’re learning a lot about the white supremacist who violently disrupted the sanctity of a Bible study and about how he got his gun. We now know the accused killer bought his gun from a federally licensed dealer with an incomplete background check.
Left out of this one: the fact that, due to a paperwork error on the part of the local law enforcement, the Charleston shooter would never have popped up on his background check. The only reason we now know about him was that the FBI and local law enforcement tracked down the error.
Regarding background checks themselves, Ms. Watts has said,
The bottom line is that — thanks to the gun lobby — the FBI only gets three days to complete this potentially life-saving process before a gun dealer has the authority — but not an obligation — to complete the sale. This arbitrary three-day rule, which the gun lobby fought for, has allowed more than 15,000 guns to be sold to dangerous people between 2010 and 2014 alone, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Can you imagine this kind of policy in any other industry? A loan officer would never go ahead and give out money to a bank customer after three days because a credit check was incomplete. A doctor wouldn’t tell someone she’s cancer-free because her lab results weren’t available after three days. And, as a parent, would you want your child’s day care worker to be cleared for duty with an incomplete background check?
Let’s break some of this down, shall we?
…the FBI only gets three days to complete this potentially life-saving process before a gun dealer has the authority — but not an obligation — to complete the sale
Well Ms. Watts, a different, possibly more-accurate way to put this is that the FBI has three entire days to complete this process before a citizen’s Second Amendments rights can no longer be delayed. As to the gun dealer, they have no obligation to complete the sale, but also no obligation to hold it up and lose a customer if the nation’s number one law enforcement entity can’t dig up enough dirt on a customer to say no.
Can you imagine this kind of policy in any other industry?…
No. I can’t. I can’t imagine waiting three days for my loan officer to approve my loan. If I’ve fulfilled all of my obligations to provided data to the bank and thhey can’t make a decision, I’m going to a different bank.
Perhaps, Ms. Watts, you’re confusing America with other countries. Here, we have due process and the presumption of innocence. That’s why we have the three day limit. It prevents an individual in the federal government from behaving like New Jersey and indefinitely delaying my rights because they don’t feel that Americans should be self-reliant.
The Moms are now demanding action from Cabela’s and other hunting and sporting good stores. They demand that Cabela’s submit to their will and halt or hold up gun sales on the presumption of guilt. Where they failed to force Kroger to submit, they will now turn the ire of over 10 moms to harassing a sporting goods store into obeying the demands of people who don’t shop there.
It is up to everyone — from political leaders, to gun retailers, to average citizens — to demand we close every single loophole that prevents law-abiding citizens from getting their hands on the most-effective means of self-defense. It’s common sense, it’s good sense, and it will save innocent lives.
