They’re going after our constitutional rights again!

Senators strike bipartisan gun deal, heralding potential breakthrough

By Mike DeBonis and Leigh Ann Caldwell | Updated June 12, 2022 at 5:41 p.m. EDT | Published June 12, 2022 at 11:08 a.m. EDT

A bipartisan group of senators announced Sunday that it had reached a tentative agreement on legislation that would pair modest new gun restrictions with significant new mental health and school security investments — a deal that could put Congress on a path to enacting the most significant national response in decades to acts of mass gun violence.

Twenty senators — 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — signed a statement announcing the framework deal. The move indicated that the agreement could have enough GOP support to defeat a filibuster, the Senate supermajority rule that has impeded previous gun legislation.

“Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities,” the statement read in part. “Most importantly, our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.”

Under the tentative deal, a federal grant program would encourage states to implement red-flag laws that allow authorities to keep guns away from people found by a judge to represent a potential threat to themselves or others, while federal criminal background checks for gun buyers younger than 21 would include a mandatory search of juvenile justice and mental health records for the first time.

The only provision of this I can support is that prospective firearms buyers have their juvenile justice records checked as well. And I cannot see why such a provision would apply solely to prospective buyers ages 18-20; the juvenile record search should apply to everyone.

Other provisions would prevent gun sales to domestic violence offenders beyond just spouses, closing what is often called the “boyfriend loophole”; clarify which gun sellers are required to register as federal firearms dealers and, thus, run background checks on their customers; and establish new federal offenses related to gun trafficking.

“(D)omestic violence offenders”? If they have actually been convicted of a crime, that should already be part of their records, and prevent them from buying firearms. If they have only been accused by someone, and never have actually been charged and subject to normal bail restrictions, then no, we cannot and should not prohibit a free American citizen from exercising his rights just on someone’s say-so. The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard fiasco ought to demonstrate to us that disgruntled spouses and former spouses can and will say anything to get back at their exes.

The agreement does not include a provision supported by President Biden, congressional Democrats and a handful of Republicans that would raise the minimum age for the purchase of at least some rifles from 18 to 21. Handguns are already subject to a federal 21-and-older rule.

I suspect that our only hope is that the left try to festoon this ‘compromise’ with enough stupidity that it loses enough Republican support to allow it to be filibustered successfully.