Using the astroturf “gun violence awareness day” as a platform to launch their latest attack on guns and gun owners, Democrats today introduced two new bills that would severely restrict and possibly eliminate the ability for Americans to purchase firearms. The two bills in question are the “Handgun Trigger Safety Act,” which would require that any gun sold in the United States MUST include a “smart gun” trigger lock that would only allow “authorized users” to fire the gun, and a “Gun Research Safety Bill” that would funnel money to the CDC to provide studies to support more gun control. There’s just one problem . . .
There are no “smart guns” on the market, and the technology to make the required functions work doesn’t exist either. The only smart gun that might have been available for sale is still vaporware, and hasn’t been delivered to customers. In other words, if this bill goes into effect (5 years after passage), it would immediately outlaw the sale of any handgun in the United States, regardless of whether technology has caught up to the Hollywood-fueled fever dreams of the legislators. The argument they’re making is that the technology will eventually become available, but New Jersey made that same argument and smart guns still aren’t available for sale.
Mandating that all firearms use technology that is still “science fiction” is, quite possibly, proof that the sponsors of the bill have completely lost touch with reality. The Democrats responsible in this case are — surprise! — Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
It looks like the legislation was introduced as a way to show their constituents that Congress is “doing something” about the “scourge of gun violence.” That should definitely earn the politicians in question brownie points with their Democratic base. But the problem is that this same legislation that plays so well in their individual constituencies is a disaster for the Democratic party on the national stage.
Going into another election year, trying to make the claim that Democrats don’t want to impose more gun control — if they have any intention of keeping up that pretense — will be nearly impossible with proposals like this hanging over the candidate’s heads. As a result, we could see this pushing more undecided voters off the fence and towards the Republican candidates instead.
Oh, and BTW, zero chance this even gets out of committee. FYI.
[h/t The Hill]
They know this BS ain’t gonna pass GO.
Its all about PR so when next election comes the bill sponsors can claim they did something about ‘gun violence’.
“Unleash the hounds!”
(As Accur81 would say…)
Let the bill escape committee.
Bring it to the floor for debate.
And annihilate it via debate in public, on C-Span.
Unless of course RINO Boehner decides to get on board and recommends that the Congress “Pass the Bill so that we can find out what’s in it.”
Or just do what dems do. Pass it behind closed doors,on a holiday weekend, without reading it.
The only thing that’s gonna go is prices: up.
Perfect. Waiting for my birthday and watching a PSA sale. I’m betting the sale is off.
Not today it’s not, but just you wait until Queen Hillary gets her coronation and the Democrats take both houses of Congress back, next year.
And remember: even if the bill never goes anywhere, it will be announced breathlessly by the lapdog leftist newsmedia and trumpeted from one end of the country to the other as “the answer to gun violence.” And when it dies in committee, Hillary and her cheering section in the MSM will all be wearing identical frowny faces and blaming those evil, evil Republicans.
How many millions of the wetback criminals the Kenyan has brought into the country do you think will be registered to vote in the next sixteen months–legally or not? How many million absentee ballots from Mr. Zig Zag and Mr. Jack Daniels, of no fixed address, with no Social Security number or other documentation of their existence, do you think ACORN–or, rather, the hundreds of tiny splinter groups ACORN split up into (“The Black Institute,” “Action United,” “Action Now,” “Communities for Change,” and on and on)–will fabricate and stuff into the ballot boxes on Election Day?
It is later than you think.
I hope that jerk who was selling smart guns is happy now. The damage is done you idiot.
No sense getting mad at the guy who was messing about with the technology. As far as I have seen, it never made any particular claims about its reliability or ease of use… Blame the miserable colluding bastards in Washington.
Meh, that guy is deserving of a lot of scorn. The fact he couldn’t run a business is meaningless if he demonstrated to the anti’s that “smart gun” tech theoretically exists. That guy deserves a ton of hate.
Not that I am a fan but, being in the electronics industry I know this will be the future and it will work eventually. When it does work it really will prevent stolen guns from being used by the gang bangers.
“When it does work it really will prevent stolen guns from being used by the gang bangers.”
Yeah, right. It REALLY will.
The very idea is stupid on its face, and that you applaud it in this way tells a lot.
Here’s a hint for you: any such tech can be bypassed or otherwise hacked. Or, do you believe the unicorns spread their fairy dust and no one EVAR uses a stolen ATM card?
Get real, man. This kind of technology is nothing but a political football designed to fool people like you that think (a) the goal really is to keep the guns out of the hands of gangbangers and (b) that it could work anyway.
Karl.
if you can jail break a I Device or root a Android, you can work around a “smart” gun.
Not to mention that you can still just mail order a cap and ball revolver, powder and caps, have it all delivered to your front door via UPS, then do a youtube search to figure out how to load it.
or just steal a not so smart gun. My 1895 model Nagant Revolver works just fine now (made in ’43), and with a little care and decent storage, it will work just fine in 2115 as well.
or you could use a pointy stick, or a rock. trying to outlaw weapons is foolish and will fail. Maybe they should just punish the offenders.
The truth about the “electronic industry” is that criminals always find a way to hack or alter technology in some way. And, if a criminal really wants a gun, there is always the technique used by some criminals in Europe when I lived there in the 80’s — ambush a police officer for his/her gun.
Actually my edit failed. What I wanted to add was, even if this did come about, which it will, all other firearms, including antiques must either be banned or retrofitted to comply. Retrofitting IMO is really not possible in most instances.
I just think this technology will come about for future weapons. Can it be defeated? Sure just like people will hack into computer controlled cars credit cards etc.. It will generate a new “Cottage Industry” selling to the gangs and other criminals. I was going to say creating more jobs but they likely will be foreign and the technology smuggled into the US (only slight sarcasm)
What reality are these people living in that they think the James Bond or Judge Dredd pistols are real? What are their I.Q.s?
I hear they’re mostly concerned about the Glock 7.
You’re going to have a helluva time retrofitting the porcelain of a Glock 7 to accept the needed circuitry. Unless of course you soak it first, then it should take a few set screws for mounting.
they would love it if the only gun out there was a glock 7.
a gun that costs more than you make in a month?? they’d be thrilled. 🙂
“What reality are these people living in that they think the James Bond or Judge Dredd pistols are real? What are their I.Q.s?’
We can’t even get the ‘Three Shells’ to work right and you expect a smart gun?
Bonus points for the “Demolition Man” reference!
Seconded!
The sad thing is, the Dems know this would violate the U.S. Supreme Court Heller decision … and they also know it could take years to toss it out in the courts … if the U.S. Supreme Court would even decide to hear the case. In other words they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
There are no “smart guns” on the market. Well this doesn’t matter to them. In their minds just by them demanding it will make it so. To hell with the facts.
Or they DO know and they are counting on it.
They ban all but smart guns, then surprisedly “notice” all guns are now illegal, and say, “but you can have a gun so long as it’s a smart gun”
Hey, you can have any zebra you want, as long as its coat is a solid magenta color.
There’s just one problem . . .
It’s a Republican House and Senate.
Occupied by a goodly number of Republicans that continue to give the Democrats exactly what they want.
Don’t count on party majority to stop something like this …
Technically, that is two problems.
It’s the same thing every time The Other Party takes the reins of Congress – they immediately start vomiting every two-bit, whacko fantasy bill onto the Floor so that, when it is inevitably shot down, they can point to Those Eeeeevil Others and shout, “Look! They’re standing in the way of progress! We tried to do something and they stopped us!”
They stood in the way of Khrushchev’s progress too.
After reading this gun ban bill, it does not appear that any police agencies are exempted, only the Department of Defense. I’m actually in favor of that — if ordinary citizens can’t purchase certain guns or magazines then the police shouldn’t be able to buy them, either. So this bill would disarm both law-abiding citizens and the police, but not the criminals. Brilliant.
Doesn’t restrict the DOD either? Yeah no, because I doubt the blanket restriction on service members to store, keep or carry individual firearms will be rescinded either. So that leaves it up to the entrenched political class and military brass to decide for everyone else.
Good luck. Clearly nitwits from NY and such underestimate the folks in the middle of nowhere.
Grabs crotch…..”ban this”
I wonder if they thought through a 99.99 % Go F yourself non-compliance even if it ever did see the light of day. Are they really so stupid to invite another Civil War?
NY is at 75-85% non-compliance to the Safe Act already. And well, the other dolt is simply a Masshole.
“Are they really so stupid to invite another Civil War?”
Um, yes. Yes they are.
What makes you think that isn’t what they’re trying for?
These are nihilists. They’re still angry at Daddy for not buying them a pony when they were nine years old, and they can’t restrain themselves whenever they perceive anyone or anything else that smells like a successful male authority figure to them. They hate God. They hate the church–every church. They hate Capitalism. They hate America. They hate white people. They hate the Founding Fathers. They hate the Constitution. They hate Manifest Destiny. They hate European colonialism. They hate the Confederate flag–but they hate the Stars and Stripes every bit as much. They hate patriotism. They hate national pride. They hate heterosexuality. They hate traditional gender roles. They hate tradition itself. They hate self-reliance. They hate self-discipline and hard work. They hate the very idea that actions have consequences and that fools and knaves will always be seen to reap what they have sown. They hate nationalism–in white countries, anyway. They want to see it all burn, burn, burn, and they have convinced themselves that when it’s all in flames, “the masses” will turn to them and beg to be led to Scientific Socialism, which will be administered by brilliant minds who won’t have to bother with irrelevant, irritating details like elections or Constitutions, and who are far, far smarter than those stupid hicks in Flyover Country, who don’t count anyway.
Read your Marx. Read your Gramsci–the Prison Diaries are especially enlightening on these points. All these shared concepts that make up our culture are, to a Marxist true believer, “cultural hegemony” and “false consciousness” that the capitalist class uses to prevent the proletariat from seeing that he must smash capitalism and seize power, etc., etc., etc. Everything that makes up our culture–from this idea that human life has value and that the crime of murder must carry the ultimate punishment, to this idea that maybe pedophiles shouldn’t be allowed to “marry” and adopt children, must be torn down, by any means necessary and every tool at hand, most especially including agitprop delivered by the mass media. History itself must be edited, altered, falsified, and eventually abolished altogether. To paraphrase Orwell, the objective is to destroy the past and the future, leaving the people atomized and anomic, standing about dazed and blinking, living in an eternal now in which the Party is always right.
We live in interesting times. It is later than you think.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.); together they’re known as “Malarkey”.
One of our (Colorado’s) Supreme Court justices was named “Mary Mullarkey” (she even became chief justice in 1996 until she retired in 2010) and if memory serves, the name sure as hell fit.
Malarkey and Baloney is more fitting and accurate.
Take it to them: “no one wants to take or ban guns” they keep saying.
Congratulations on making it onto a list… besides, they don’t need gun violence…
they need BALLOT VIOLENCE. Vote the crooks out.
California outlawed the sale of all new gun models this way. No gun model introduced after 2013 can be sold in Cali because of a mandate for an technology that does not exist. Micro-stamping with the firing pin.
I was going to point out this current political fail, that basically opens up a grey market for all new pistols in California. Now anyone who has to come to California from a free state is stocking up on “non-rostered” pistols and bringing them here to fetch a handy profit. $700 Glock Gen 4 anyone?
“Completely lost touch with reality” implies that they were in touch with reality at some point.
Going into another election year, trying to make the claim that Democrats don’t want to impose more gun control — if they have any intention of keeping up that pretense — will be nearly impossible with proposals like this hanging over the candidate’s heads. As a result, we could see this pushing more undecided voters off the fence and towards the Republican candidates instead.
I actually see this as good news. Never interrupt your enemy when she is making a mistake.
Way to go girl!
Just a reminder to all those “Libertarians” and others who claim there is no difference between the Dems and the GOP.
I’ll see your example and raise you NC.
For the first time in a MIGHTY long time, the Republicans own the Governor’s House, the State House and the State Senate. Own all three.
And we STILL can’t get some basic pro-gun laws passed. Getting rid of the Jim Crow permit system is in contention right now, and looks like if the larger bill DOES pass, it may well be so watered down so as to be mostly meaningless.
So, yeah…I’m not seeing a LOT of difference between the parties these days.
Because if the Dems had both Houses and the Governership, you’d probably be going backwards. If the Dems had had Congress after Sandy Hook we’d all be reading Nick’s review of the latest sharp stick produced by FN or S&W.
The GOP isn’t alway good on guns – but the Dems are almost always worse.
“Because if the Dems had both Houses and the Governership, you’d probably be going backwards.”
A fair general statement, but I will point out that NC became a Shall Issue State in 1995 with a Dem Governor and Dems in control of both Houses of the General Assembly.
And again, here we sit with the Reps owning all three and moving pro gun legislation through is like pulling teeth. Too many of the Republicans like the conservative vote, but lack the backbone to act conservative in office.
It really is enough to lead one to pull out hair…an urge one must consciously resist.
I should, however, mention that my Rep in the State House continuously sponsors and co-sponsors gun rights bills…so there’s that. We take victories where we can find them, I guess.
If only the R’s in the rest of the State would just vote as their constituency wants them to vote, rather than pandering to the minority D’s.
Yeah, no difference–that’s why Nick and Dan are always writing those “Breaking: Republicans introduce [insert gun control insanity here]” headlines. Or not. If NC is anything like Texas, expecting one election-cycle that gives the Rs control of the state gov’t to undo a century and a half of Dem dominance is perhaps a bit unrealistic. But I will grant, state-level and national-level can be two very different situations.
I’m not on the “no difference” bandwagon..else I would just toss a coin on election day.
But, I AM saying that the differences are smaller than many of us want to admit. The R’s may not be introducing such nonsense legislation, but there are a bunch of R’s that would support it if every got to the point of serious discussion.
And, there area bunch of R’s that would take the “support LE” view, so if LE says this gun law is good or that one is bad, the vote goes with that wind. Hence the pistol permit problem in NC; getting rid of it diminishes Sheriff power just a touch, so if only a few Sheriff’s oppose it, the R “I’m pro Law and Order” stance is to oppose it as well.
Lindsay Graham taught me about trusting too much in the “R” after the name.
As for your comment about one election cycle not undoing a century of bs, well…what’s really stopping them? In NC, the R’s have the votes (in spades), but too many RINO’s to actually execute said votes.
Similar thing could be said about Obamacare on the national stage. Vote to defund it and … done. But, do they do that? Have they done it?
And that goes for ANY such crap the Dems have done…just defund it. The votes are there if the “R” actually means what the voters think it means, but instead, we get all this “political theatre” all the time.
@JR_in_NC: Great post and I agree. IMHO, both parties are too statist. They vary in agenda but miss the mark too often. Political theater indeed!
BREAKING: democrats are unbelievable douchebags!
This answers the eternal question of which party you can trust. You can’t trust Republicans because they may not be aggressive supporters of 2A. But you can always trust the Democrats to try to destroy any and all individual rights and turn this country into a steaming third world sh1thole. That’s pretty much it, no?
The Donkeycraps will turn the USA in a socialist paradise-such as Venezuela as an example.
And the Republicans will turn it into a government run capitalist paradise like Brazil.
It is amazing how much time and money the ass clowns waste grandstanding, when they could actually be doing something.
Given what Dems accomplish when they do “do something” I’ll happily watch them grandstand.
Donkey craps going around in circles is beneficial to this country. Donkeycraps being productive is a disaster for the country.
They are either on too many drugs or not on enough..They are too stupid to realize,smart guns can end up getting you killed..The only way,i would even have one,is if someone gave me one.That said,i certainly wouldn’t use it for self defense,unless for some crazy reason it’s all i had.
So what about authorized-user technology for hammers? I saw it in The Avengers, so it must be coming soon, right?
They’re very bold, introducing bills they know won’t see the light of day on the floor no matter who’s in the majority. It’s a bone to their nutty anti- self-protection fringe.
I’ll be dead before complying with that bullshit. I expect many politicians would be too.
Damn, I guess I’ll go glue some diodes and Nixie tubes and shit to the outside of my collection, then…
Introducing such legislation should be grounds for immediate dismissal and arrest for treason.
Oh HELL NO! Remember the names of these two socialist democrats and ANY other who signs on to this crap bill. Then vote everone of them out of office. Americans have shown over these last three or four years that we will not tolerate anymore gun control nonsense, we want our gun rights protected and will vote for those promising and supporting that. The democrats dont have a future with the nonsense obama and his administration are pulling, not just with gun rights, but other controversial topics as well.
Nice idea, but nobody is getting voted out of office over this go-nowhere bill. It’s grandstanding for their heavily-Democratic constituents (Massachusetts and New York, remember?), who will likely eat this idiotic shit up with a spoon.
Armatix is in Chapter 11, or the German equivalent thereof.
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/05/24/armatix-smart-gun-manufacturer-files-chapter-11-restructuring/
But that doesn’t mean squat to Maloney.
Last time I checked CONservatives ran both houses, so……….
There doom fail because there stupid bills only make common cents to idiots write them no one else. I well not be surprise if we see many more idiot gun control measures try get pass before Obama replace with some one else and God well they well all fail being stupid ideas.
Upgrade your voice recognition software.
You may not trust a few republitards but I don’t trust ANY dumbocrat(and yeah I live in Illinois)…
The Dems love to introduce these over-reaching, clearly unconstitutional gun control bills, partly for the ego-trip, partly for the “See, I’m doing something” value, and partly for the shock value.
Isn’t it time the guys on our side introduce equally shocking legislation? Instead of relatively minor things like national reciprocity, isn’t it time we just go for the whole enchilada and introduce bills for National Constitutional Carry, or Homeland Security Grassroots Logistics Act (as in, send in your name, pass a background check, and get a free, surplus M4, M14, or Garand), or National Firearms Practice day (with 500 gov’t-supplied rounds of NATO caliber to anyone who shows up at a public range.)
This is why you shouldn’t do drugs, kids
The CDC should concentrate on epidemiology of diseases such as rabies and leave the social justice crap to others.
…any gun sold in the United States MUST include a “smart gun” trigger lock that would only allow “authorized users” to fire the gun
I have one of those. It’s called a combination safe.
Well hell, while we are letting unicorns fart pixie-dust in our faces, why not require that all existing firearms be retrofitted with smart tech?!
Well, shit; Markey’s my senator and he’s been pretty responsive to my letters about other matters I’ve been concerned about – signing petitions and writing position papers about environmental, corporate and political abuses related to transparency in government (we can’t enjoy the same access to state government processes since they don’t respect FOIA requests – or lawsuits).
He’s invited me down to his offices (like he does with every other constituent I suppose) and I believe this is a subject worthy of some quality one-on-one time because this new POC legislation is in direct conflict with Governor Baker’s Executive Order # 562 (“To Reduce Unnecessary Regulatory Burden”).
This order commands that all laws and regulations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts be reconsidered and amended or struck from the books to comply with federal government laws and the Constitution.
I immediately thought of the Pennsylvania Preemption laws that have resulted in several towns rescinding their overly restrictive 2A-abusing laws because in PA these towns must pay all legal fees from lawsuits challenging local restrictions.
This could conceivably be the vehicle that we need to reestablish our 2A rights we were guaranteed by the Constitution and I’ve already called the Governor’s office to ask questions (they aren’t aware of any movement on 2A issues yet) and to offer my opinion and desire to abolish our stupid anti-2A laws regarding so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines.
We could only benefit from more exposure for this opportunity and if more people would call and visit the governor to express their opinions and contacting Markey to inquire how he can rationalize this new legislation when it so obviously conflicts with the Constitution and the new governor’s executive order. Visiting Senator Markey for a heart-to-heart may be a learning opportunity for the Senator too.
Governor Baker’s office:
617.725.4005
888.870.7770 (in state)
http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office/
Executive Order #562:
http://www.mass.gov/governor/legislationexecorder/execorders/executive-order-no-562.html
Senator Markey’s office:
617.565.8519
202.224.2742
http://markey.senate.gov
http://www.markey.senate.gov/contact
Senator Warren’s offices:
617.565.3170
202.224.4543
http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=email_senator
Well, it has been quite a while, and Sen Malarkey and Rep. Baloney’s bill never saw the light of day – so despite our belief that the congress is a de facto sanctuary for wingnuts, there are still enough members there with functioning grey matter to overrule this lunacy.