“The House of Representatives will vote on national gun-carry reciprocity and gun background check fix bills this week,” freebeacon.com reports. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 and the Fix NICS Act will be combined and likely voted on Wednesday.” A congressional aide gave The Beacon the 411 . .
“It is my understanding they may be combined,” the said. “Rules is meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. They have both. Floor vote should be Wednesday.”
The combination (click here to read) is drawing criticism from some quarters. I think it’s a brilliant strategy.
By combining the Fix NICS misegos with national reciprocity, the combined bill gives cover to the handful of Dems who could be persuaded to break with the Democratic party’s anti-gun rights stance.
In 2013, 13 Democrats supported Senator Cornyn’s national reciprocity bill. Seven of those are still sitting Senators. Assuming all 52 Republican Senators are on board, the new bill needs the sevens’ support and two more Dems to achieve the necessary 60-vote majority.
With the civilian disarmament complex in full attack mode, with the mainstream media playing cheerleader (e.g., The New York Post’s article ‘Reciprocity’ is pure gun insanity), this is far from a done deal.
Watch this space.
Anyone else feeling that there’s going to be a mass shooting in the next couple of days and the vote will be delayed? Is that conspiracy theory talk?
This would be a good week to avoid all the Christmas parades and all other outdoor mass gathering events.
This worries me. Honestly the whole “NICS fix” thing doesn’t seem like a big deal. But I’m truly concerned a false flag will happen soon.
There’s no false flags, it’s just congress drags. its. feet. as. long. as. possible. until…OMGASHOOTINGFINALLYHAPPENEDNOWTHEBILLWEHATEDCANBETABLEDANDNOBODYCANBLAMEUS!!!!!!1!!!
Think about how far something as complex as tax reform has gotten since it was taken up, what, a month ago? The so-simple-a-congressman-can-understand-it (with a staffer to read it to them) Hearing Protection Act has been languishing since February despite enjoying as much if not more attention & support from constituents than any of the other Quixotic Adventures the 2017 US Congress has almost entirely squandered its time on.
If no movement occurs on any bill in a span of two months, it’s statistically guaranteed that some mass murder, natural disaster, terrorist attack, political scandal, or war will provide cover for additional delay.
I think you nailed it. I don’t attribute to malice what can be easily explained by statistics.
Most elected officials just don’t have the spine to push through 2nd Amendment freedom legislation, when they know their unscrupulous opponents will later use a mass shooting against them in the next election.
Since it was re-introduced this year, it has been languishing for years.
@FortWorthColtGuy
You’re not alone. A few times right before I bought a weapons, there was some shooting. Right before I bought my black scary rifle, Sandy Hook happened.
I’ve been thinking that just watch; there will be some stupid shooting by some idiot who shouldn’t have had firearms and fu** everything up for everyone.
You guys have it backwards. Fix NICS is a BAD idea, broadening the prohibited person window and giving them more control…sure, don’t see them going far with it now, but if progressives are anything its consistently patient. They just have to wait till they cheat their way to another Clinton or Obama.
They WANT this one to pass, which is why its gone as far and fast as it has.
And if you don’t think its that bad, I refer you to the 1986 Firearms protection act and the Hughes amendment that the NRA told Reagan they would fight if he would sign it into law…that they never did
Oh, and FYI, who do you think helped come up with NICS in the first place? Yah, that’s right, the NRA…
I wish we could get some clarification on 4477 FIX NICS and what it actually does, cause I’m getting conflicting reports from NRA/MAC on what it does or doesn’t do.
MAC I trust. NRA I do not. The NRA GAVE us the NICS system instead of fighting Clinton tooth and nail in the first place. A more recent example is what the NRA did here in Texas while we were fighting for open an constitutional carry. The NRA opposed us on both, and then when we actually DID get open carry with a permit through, they claimed responsibility, when it was Open Carry Texas that lead the charge.
Until and Unless they start ACTIVELY fighting for our rights, instead of carving them off a chunk at a time to appease the left, they will NEVER get my support or my trust ever again.
Oh and why would they fight against constitutional carry? No permit…who do you think gets money from training the guys that run the permit courses in the first place? Who set up the curriculum? Who stands to lose money and power if our rights become uninfringed?
I only skimmed the bill, but it does look like it just spends money and puts in penalties, that won’t be enforced because when are they ever, for bureaucrats who don’t do their jobs.
Well, it was nice while the 2A lasted. Now a mere diagnosis or a traffic ticket will allow the FBI to Waco your house.
The GOP has just given both the house and senate to the democrats.
And f%*# the traitors in the NRA. F%*% John Cornyn and F#*^ all of the stupid worthless Americans who want to feel safe.
America is done…
Where are you getting this idea from? We’re winning the war right now.
Because there is no low the GOP will not stoop to. I GUARUNTEE you that HR 4477 will pass and be even worse than it was originally and HR 38 will fail, or worse yet HR 38 will be poisoned by having HR 4477 rolled into it.
We ain’t winning shit.
The sad thing is that FBI and the ATF once again had to Step in and make these shootings happen just so the GOP would have political excuses to push this crap through.
It’s over. We lost.
Wait. What?
I really don’t see how we lost. The “NICS fix” doesn’t seem to grant any new authority or create any new law, it only dished out punishments to agencies who don’t cooperate with the system. While I agree the background check system is inherently stupid, that’s really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
@Robert Farago
After Ruby Ridge, Waco, Fast & Furious and the like I wouldn’t put anything past the government. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but the handling of the aftermath the Vegas shooting just reeks of something being deliberately kept secret.
And I don’t trust the GOP any further than I could throw them. They’ve proven that when the chips are down they’ll buckle and toe the democrat party line just because the media tells them to.
Hopefully I’m not banned because of my comments because this blog is where I get most of my 2A-related news. 🙁
Robert, check out “Victim of ‘Draw Muhammad’ ISIS-inspired terror attack sues FBI, accuses James Comey of cover-up” over at the Washington Examiner. (by Todd Shepherd | Oct 2, 2017, 5:35 PM). It looks like the FBI gave material aid and support to terrorists, encouraged the terrorists, and covered up their involvement.
I think the tinfoil is cutting off the bloodflow to what’s left of your brain. Might I suggest a reduction in your daily crayon intake?
Why else would the rinos be pushing this so hard and why else would Dianne Feinstein and chuck schumer throw their support behind the senate bill if it doesn’t expand the NICS database?
Schumer and fienstine are backing this bill? I highly doubt that. Do you have a source for this? I would absolutely shocked if they backed national reciprocity even with add ons.
@Hank
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s2135/details
Look at the bill’s list of co-sponsors.
Because the bills haven’t been combined yet. Once they are, I expect the DNC to hit the brakes hard. Too bad it will be too late at that point.
Schumer and Feinstein are cosponsors on FixNICS, but definitely not on reciprocity. Not sure if the combined bill actually has cosponsors.
@ Doomguy Your link to the list of cosponsors is for Fix Nic’s. Of course they support it. They will crow to the heavens about how they passed some gun control. THEY WILL ALWAYS LIE AND TRY TO SPIN IT AS IN THEIR FAVOR.
It’s not done until it’s done.
….???…😕
Okay. I think maybe DoomGuy is taking his title a bit too literally… but then again he MIGHT have chosen his blog handle very accurately and he really is this pessimistic and depressing…
Eh, whatever…
🤠
Aren’t antigun states just going to make it pretty much useless to have a carry permit in their state? Does this really get us anything?
It’s step 1. Somehow I doubt that the connected politicriters with their carefully bribed permits would be too happy to have such restrictions placed on them.
If the bill is passed and enforced as written, there isn’t much they can do to make carry too difficult. Two big ifs. There is an argument to be made that this bill would preempt every anti-concealed carry law except some gun free zone laws. I don’t think it goes that far, and I’m certain it won’t be interpreted as going that far, but it does go pretty far.
My first impression has been the same, but having read more about it I think that the bill is written in a way that makes (forces) Kalifornistan to accept my Maine CCP. And they can’t do anything about it because Kalifornistan would have to change Maine law to have any effect on me.
Therefore now more than ever, worth getting your states issued Concealed Carry permit.
Hell yeah. We’re fighting to win now. Not just hold on. I remember when there was much talk of a “high water mark” for gun rights a few years ago. Now we’re on offense and they’re the ones just trying to hold on. Keep going forward, not one step backwards!
Fighting to win? Nah, that’ll never work. The only way we accomplish anything, is by doing absolutely nothing…over a long period of time.
Already called and demanded no merger.
No. Shall not be infringed. PERIOD. If I am not fit to have a gun, then I shouldn’t have a truck, power tools. In fact, don’t let me around rocks, or my own fists. The NFA and GCA are straight unconstitutional and antiquated. You don’t have to have a gun but you don’t get to decide that for everybody else.
I still don’t understand why we trust an individual with freedom if we can’t trust them with a freedom.
Right, lock me up or let me have guns. The thugs across town don’t fill out 4473s. I don’t know who put who in charge of my God given rights, but it smells like traitors to our nation
Stupid…
I wouldn’t support merging two different issues in one bill just to get something passed. I rather they both fail than to compromise another human right and give the government more power.
“I wouldn’t support merging two different issues in one bill just to get something passed. I rather they both fail than to compromise another human right and give the government more power.”
Here’s where your logic fails, Jay –
That NICS turd will be signed into law, either by itself or combined with National Carry.
Full stop. That’s stark, cold reality.
Why the hell not use that to get National Carry? If you haven’t noticed, Nat. Carry is gonna have a tough time getting passed as it is.
The Leftists can claim victory on ‘strengthening checks’, and we get to claim victory for carry…
If a terrorist gave you the option of shooting your mom to save your dad, would you do it?
The “Fix NICS” appears to be another infringement on people’s human rights. For instance, more names of people who smoke cannabis (whether recreational or medical) will be put on the NICS system as prohibited persons even though they are following their state laws.
By the way, can’t the president of the US veto a bill?
Without the insertion of ‘poison pills’, there will never be enough Senators willing to vote for this.
That’s the opposite of poison pills. Poison pills are designed to get people to not vote for it.
Reciprocity already had enough votes…by tacking on Fix NICS, they are ADDING a poison pill just like they did in ’86 with the Hughes amendment.
In the words of a famous fish face “ITS A TRAP!”
I just read an article that SayUncle linked to that talks about how the carry portion is going to get dropped. I read it a couple of times but I could use a couple of comments from people who understand it better.
Meh…we got UBC in Illinois. Pain in the azz but no real difference to ME. And I already have reciprocity with states I’m likely to traverse. How about Constitutional Carry for the win?!?
Honestly, the waiting periods in Illinois inconvenience me far more than the alleged UBCs. Illinois actually has a semi-sane UBC system, the Illinois state police has no idea which guns I own or how many.
In CA, no matter how many firearms I’ve bought I still have a 10 day wait on the next.
And .CA tracks the sales AND shares that with other countries
Michael,
Then other countries know I have more guns then they Do!
Seriously, though, CA is buggered.
From Rep Thomas Massie:
ALERT: Feinstein/Schumer sponsored gun legislation that amends the “Brady bill” will be added to Concealed Carry Reciprocity bill (HR 38) in the House this week.
As Chairman of the Second Amendment Caucus, I’m blowing the whistle on the swamp. Last week, Republicans in the House fast tracked through committee HR 4477, a gun bill titled “fix-NICS.” The Senate version of this bill is cosponsored by Senator Dianne Feintstein and Senator Chuck Schumer and it will send $625 million over 5 years to states to expand the national background check database. The bill will also advance former President Obama’s agenda of pressuring every branch of the administration (such as the Veteran’s Administration) to submit thousands of more names to the NICS background check database to deny gun purchases. The House bill is identical in every way to the Senate bill except the House bill will also commission a study on bump-stocks.
What you don’t know, and what virtually no one in Washington wants you to know, is that House leadership plans to merge the fix-NICS bill with popular Concealed Carry Reciprocity legislation, HR 38, and pass both of them with a single vote. Folks, this is how the swamp works. House leadership expects constituents to call their representatives demanding a vote on the reciprocity bill, when in fact the only vote will be on the two combined bills.
How fast did Fix-NICS, HR 4477, move through the Judiciary Committee? This bill broke the previous records for fast track legislation. It was voted out of committee within hours of being introduced in the House. Check the dates on this link: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4477/text . That means the text of the bill wasn’t even discoverable by the public on congress.gov until after the bill passed out of committee! The text was however available over in the Senate where you will find Senator Diane Feinstein and Senator Chuck Schumer are cosponsors. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2135/cosponsors
If that’s not odd enough, consider this: the fix-NICS bill was introduced in the House by a Democrat two weeks ago. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4434/text . But, in a very unusual move, the bill was re-introduced verbatim by a Republican two weeks later, with language added to it to commission a bump-stock study. Six Republicans in Judiciary Committee weren’t persuaded by the switcheroo, and voted No. However, because every Democrat voted yes and some Republicans voted yes at the urging of the Chairman, the bill made it out of committee. The deed will be complete this week when the bill is quietly added to the Reciprocity bill, HR 38, and passed without the knowledge of those who would oppose the legislation if they knew what was in it.
To recap, what are some clues that you should be concerned with the fix-NICS bill?
(1) The first sentence after the title of the bill reads “Section 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901) is amended…”
(2) Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer are cosponsors in the Senate.
(3) It’s being rammed through, without a hearing, in a very nontransparent process, and it will be passed by attaching it to the popular concealed carry reciprocity bill which already has enough votes to pass on its own.
(4) It spends over half a billion dollars to collect more names to include in a list of people who will never be allowed to own a firearm.
(5) It compels administrative agencies, not just courts, to adjudicate your second amendment rights.
In my opinion, #5 is the biggest problem. The bill encourages administrative agencies, not the courts, to submit more names to a national database that will determine whether you can or can’t obtain a firearm. When President Obama couldn’t get Congress to pass gun control, he implemented a strategy of compelling, through administrative rules, the Veterans Administration and the Social Security Administration to submit lists of veterans and seniors, many of whom never had a day in court, to be included in the NICS database of people prohibited from owning a firearm. Only a state court, a federal (article III) court, or a military court, should ever be able to suspend your rights for any significant period of time.
Does the NICS background check system have problems? Yes, it results in tens of thousands of unjustified denials of gun purchases every year. But like many bills in Congress, the fix-NICS doesn’t live up to its name – it will likely do the opposite. It throws millions of dollars at a faulty program and it will result in more law-abiding citizens being deprived of their right to keep and bear arms.
If we continue to give the executive branch more money and encouragement to add names to the list of people prohibited from buying a firearm (without a day in court) and if the gun banners achieve their goal of universal background checks, one day, a single person elected to the office of President will be able to achieve universal gun prohibition.
House leadership should immediately de-couple the fix-NICS legislation from the concealed carry reciprocity legislation. People hate it when Washington combines bills like our leadership plans to do this week.
A few have speculated that the House is combining the bills to ensure reciprocity will pass in the Senate. I have some news for them: Senators Feinstein and Schumer aren’t going to vote for reciprocity even if it contains the fix-NICS legislation they support for expanding the background check database. If someone is naïve enough to think that’s going to work, and they’re willing to accept fix-NICS to get reciprocity, then they should ask the Senate to go first with the combined bill.
Here’s a dangerous scenario that’s more likely to play out: The House uses the popularity of reciprocity (HR 38) to sneak fix-NICS through, while the Senate passes fix-NICS only. The Senate and the House meet at conference with their respective bills, with the result being fix-NICS emerges from conference without reciprocity. Fix-NICS comes back to the House and passes because all of the Democrats will vote for it (as they just did in Judiciary Committee) and many Republicans will vote for it. Because Republicans already voted for it once as part of the reciprocity deal that never came to pass, they won’t have a solid footing for opposing fix-NICS as a standalone bill. Then we’ll end up with fix-NICS, which is basically an expansion of the Brady Bill, without reciprocity.
If our House leadership insists on bringing the flawed fix-NICS bill to the floor, they shouldn’t play games. We should vote separately on HR 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill, and HR 4477, the fix-NICS bill. And we should be given enough time to amend the fix-NICS bill, because it needs to be fixed, if not axed.
Thank you for posting this information. It sounds as though Fix NICS is a poison pill to National Reciprocity.
From the NRAILA Facebook page: “Cong Massie has never been a cosponsor of HR 38 in the House. He is incorrect. The Fix NICS act creates incentives for state and federal agencies to forward records of prohibited individuals to NICS. This is already required by federal law. It does not expand the prohibited persons category. It does not give federal agencies any new authority that they don’t already have under existing law. It’s not an expansion of the Brady Act. It doesn’t ban any guns or accessories.”
NRA ILA is unconcerned with fix NICS. It sounds like this is a Democrat false flag to get well meaning conservatives to oppose a good bill.
I’ve read the bill as best as I’m going to. It doesn’t appear to add any categories. It’s just spending a bunch of money and saying you better do what we told you to do or else consequences that won’t happen. Seriously, when was the last time a government employee got punished for not doing their job and following the law. Oh yeah, James Comey and now they’re investigating Trump for firing him.
What concerns me is what will the bill look like when this is all said and done. Hopefully this is a reverse FOPA where we get more than we lose and they lose more than they get.
of course they are unconcerned…the NICS is their baby from when they were in bed with Clinton!
Seriously, after ’86, you still trust them?
Thank you Mr. Smith for posting the Feinstein language that the bill has hidden inside.
It’s the FOPA all over again. Only I stead of the Hughes Amendment we can call it the Chucky Amendment
Call it the NRA amendment, because they’re fully in support of it. Even lying that the GoA supports it on their Facebook.
BOHICA
I agree. Trump may or may not truly want good citizens to carry freely, but the climate is such that not enough of us are standing up to this tyranny. The leftists are on full attack mode. If we stand by and let it happen, we will be just like Venezuela before you can say “donde esta mi pistola?”
If you talk to people from Venezeuela they would tell you that it’s just not in them (their average citizen) to stand up for oneself and hang one in the a_ _ of their stupid neighbors who needed a job. Here, it’s palpable except in DC, and Half the rest of the world’s amazed, the other half thinks it’s fake, but they both mught get suprised one day.
I sent Massie’s Facebook link to TTAG 2 days ago hoping they would pick up the story. Crickets.
Fighting to win, didn’t we accomplish that in the 1700’s? And that’s where it stops for me, those anti-Americans in the government can kiss my ass. Laws be damned.
I called all my reps and told them they’re ALL a joke out there in DC for letting the bs Mueller fiasco/travesty go on this long (and I usually like them).
I told them we don’t need any of the likes of them (absolute crickets from them when Trump needs them to do their damn jobs and instead they just get in the way). I told them we need them much less if they let any NICS change go through, if the change doesn’t mean chucking it.
I’m really looking forward to the vote.
FWIW – Send a letter to your representatives. Here is mine:
RE HR 4477 “Fix NICS” – I am writing to you because I am concerned that this flawed bill will be bundled with HR 38 “National Reciprocity” and through legislative shenanigans, we will have a law that is Unconstitutional in its entirety. HR 4477 contains language that permits non-judiciary (unaccountable clerks) to put persons on the prohibited persons list without a court hearing – denying explicit rights defined by the second amendment. ( WHAT PART OF “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” IS UNCLEAR??) Also, the bump stock study portion is wasted money. If the bill is to be bundled, the offending language must be removed from HR 4477: 1. No administrative additions to NICS 2. No bump stock “study” -waste of tax dollars.
Watch everything fail now. Good going.
LIVE Hearing Now — Bump-Stock ban review just renewed by DOJ & BATF.
Spewing Bulls##T as usual. — Ban all parts will be next !
https://rules.house.gov/video/rules-committee-hearing-hr-38
I don’t like what I read in the bill that labels magazines as firearms to get around magazine bans. Just like DC and MD calling any and all components of ammunition to be ammunition. Spent shotgun hulls, casings, primers, a sole bullet, are ammo in DC and MD.
“Just like DC and MD calling any and all components of ammunition to be ammunition.” And the 18 U.S.C. 921(17)(A). So, “[s]pent shotgun hulls, casings, primers, a sole bullet, are ammo in DC and MD” and all of America.
“In 2013, 13 Democrats supported Senator Cornyn’s national reciprocity bill. Seven of those are still sitting Senators.” – Trump wasn’t president.
“Assuming all 52 Republican Senators are on board, the new bill needs the sevens’ support and two more Dems to achieve the necessary 60-vote majority.” Doesn’t 52+7=59?