Reid to shelve gun bill
(CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he'll set aside proposed gun legislation without a final vote following the defeat a day earlier of major provisions sought by President Barack Obama and Democrats in the aftermath of the Newtown school massacre.
"(Obama) and I agreed that the best way to keep working towards passing a background check bill is to hit pause, and freeze the background check bill where it is," he said on the Senate floor. "This will allow senators to keep negotiating."
A Senate Democratic leadership aide said Reid can bring up the package of gun proposals again if circumstances change and he believes he has the votes for key provisions to pass, particularly a measure to expand background checks on gun buyers.
"We're gonna have time to work on what people want to do before we come back to this," Reid said, adding that this option allows them to return to the bill without returning to square one. "It will only be a matter of time."
"The stand of the Republicans is not sustainable," he said. "The question is how long they're going to stand firm–but it's not sustainable."
In a major defeat for supporters of tougher gun laws, the Senate on Wednesday defeated a compromise plan to expand background checks on firearms sales as well as a proposal to ban some semi-automatic firearms modeled after military assault weapons.
The ATF employs about 5,000 men and women, approximately the same number of staff it had a decade ago; about half are special agents assigned to conduct criminal investigations. That's a force about the size of the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Department. In a letter to Vice President Joe Biden's gun violence commission, 108 academic researchers complained that the ATF's funding was "stagnating" while the budgets of law enforcement agencies such as the FBI had seen "dramatic expansions." Since 1972, the Drug Enforcement Administration's staff has more than doubled, while the FBI's is up by two-thirds. The ATF's current budget of $1.15 billion is little changed from the $900 million it received 10 years ago.
for shame
SC –
"I think what some of you don't know is that ANYONE can buy a gun online or a gun show. They have absolutely no restriction. A sociopath can go online and buy whatever gun they want with absolutely no sort of background check. This is a problem."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
This continued lie by stupid liberals like yourself prove that none of you have any idea about buying guns. Let me say this so you will understand YOU CANNOT BUY ANY GUN ONLINE OR AT A GUN SHOW WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK UNLESS THE GUN IS BOUGHT FROM A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL WHICH IS VERY, VERY RARE. 99.9% of all legal guns are bought from FFL licensed dealers, even online and at gun shows, and a background check is always required with these purchases. Even with the proposed background check laws, private sales would continue and most likely increase, but the new laws would have absolutely no impact on the online and gun shows sales.
Although the Brady law did not require multiple sales reports for long guns, including the military-style assault rifles favored by Mexican drug cartels, President Obama has tried to crack down on traffickers in those weapons. In 2011 the Justice Department issued a rule requiring gun dealers in four Southwest border states to file multiple sale reports for rifles of larger than .22-caliber. The NRA and the Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation immediately went to court to stop its enforcement. Cox, the NRA lobbyist, said the rule "will only divert scarce law enforcement resources from legitimate criminal investigations and squander them on policing law-abiding retailers." But Peter Forcelli, an ATF supervisory special agent turned whisleblower, called the long-gun rule a "huge tool" that "gives us a head start to investigate potentially unlawful sales." During the first eight months of the program, ATF initiated 120 investigations based on multiple long-gun sale reports and recommended prosecution of more than 100 defendants in 25 separate cases. Two federal district courts turned down the NRA/NSSF challenge, which is now before the US Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Yet another Tiahrt amendment bars the ATF from forcing gun dealers to conduct annual inventories of their firearms, which the NRA's Cox describes as a "laborious and time-consuming process" and "generally unnecessary." In fact, unlike automobile dealers who have a pretty good idea when a car is missing from the lot, gun dealers seem to lose track of firearms all the time. In 2010, ATF inspections of less than 10 percent of firearms licensees identified more than 31,000 missing weapons. Unlike gun dealers, explosives dealers, also regulated by ATF, are required to keep annual inventories.
rs....the bill lost because of the semi auto gun ban. Are you daft? Can't you come to terms with your loss. I also enjoy gang bangers shooting up their neighborhoods. Say nite nite Obamacrats.
Blah Blah... yet here I am, living well, in spite of all the hate, stupidity and bigotry... Maybe you are part of the problem.
Harry Reid shut the heck up.
Dutch/Bad Newz, VA -aka- Take Back The House
The country is going to hell in a handbasket. Out politicians are brought and paid for by the NRA.
--–
you're right.... been going downhill at lightspeed since far left democrats took control in 2006 and then the leftist president came in 2008. george soros has bought and paid for the far left progressive socialism democrat party. the lefties are bought and paid for as well.
"the bill lost because of the semi auto gun ban."
Hety, moron, as has been said before in this thread, this bill contained no bans. That was in a separate bill. Get. A. Freekin. Clue.
"Can't you come to terms with your loss."
You mean like the GOP/Teatrolls have regarding November 2008 and 2012? Grow up.
"The ATF's current budget of $1.15 billion is little changed from the $900 million it received 10 years ago."
And, the GOP/Teatrolls have stymied all efforts to appoint a head of the ATF, so it has been stuck with several different "acting directors" for the past 6+ years.
@Legion,we don't care what guns you have or you know more about them than your kids .It's about protecting your average American from someone like you that goes ballistic at the word guns and for no reason but fear.Fear your guns will be taken away,fear that laws will hinder your livestyle with your guns but mostly the fear from propaganda specialists like the NRA that lie stating the governments coming for your guns which is far from the truth if you call what the NRA extremists are ranting about is truth..If you didn't want intrusion into your life than you shouldn't had voted for Bush years ago because its he who changed our landscape with his extremist programs called Homeland Security and the Patriot Act ,two real doosies that have changed America for the worse if you ask me ..
Really? NO comments on how the NRA has put a leash on the ATF, then complains about enforcing the laws already on the books?
A Bipartisan Recommendation
Whether we’re talking about gun legislation or anything else, more government control is exactly what we don’t want. Our government has a proven track record of waste and mismanagement. Until they change and demonstrate responsible and accountable management and leadership, we should not turn anything else over to their control. How many freedoms do we want to surrender to a government that cannot even manage itself?
Democratic and Republican politicians alike should be required to prove to us that they can be responsible managers before we hand anything else over to their leadership. Let’s unite on a message that says, “Don’t come asking for any more of our money or any more authority or control until you can demonstrate responsible use of what we’ve already given to you.”
Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric of compassion or the divisiveness of party opposition pitting Congress against the White House. This is not a one party problem. This is not a problem with one branch of government. Please don’t allow yourself to be drawn into debates over gun control or gay marriage. Our economy is in the tank and the ones responsible are trying to side track our focus as they continue the mismanagement and outright abuse of what we entrust to them.
-Bob Hope
SC –
"I think what some of you don't know is that ANYONE can buy a gun online or a gun show. They have absolutely no restriction. A sociopath can go online and buy whatever gun they want with absolutely no sort of background check. This is a problem."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
This continued lie by stupid liberals like yourself prove that none of you have any idea about buying guns. Let me say this so you will understand YOU CANNOT BUY ANY GUN ONLINE OR AT A GUN SHOW WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK UNLESS THE GUN IS BOUGHT FROM A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL WHICH IS VERY, VERY RARE. 99.9% of all legal guns are bought from FFL licensed dealers, even online and at gun shows, and a background check is always required with these purchases. Even with the proposed background check laws, private sales would continue and most likely increase, but the new laws would have absolutely no impact on the online and gun shows sales.
*****************
Very rare? Don't think so. Go out and see for yourself before you continue to spin the Rightie fiction about .01% of gun sales being private internet sales. You don't have any reliable figures to back up your assertions, no sources, nothing. Rightie fiction.
California in the past (the 90's) used registration lists to confiscate guns.
History will repeat itself no doubt.
-Legion
-Tom Paine
I think you're in for a very rude awakening. However, I am not a GOP'er and I'm certainly not a Democrat. It's sad how few people realize that the Rupublicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin.
*****************
What people do realize is that doing something is preferable to doing nothing. The GOP is committed to inaction, to stalling and making sure that nothing gets done. The Democrats, for all of their faults, are at least attempting to do something. The House GOP has never broken a 15% approval rating, and the blatant stalling by the GOP in the Senate does not help them either. As an independent, do you see any real leaders on the GOP side? I see sheep being herded by the NRA shepards.
The majority of people in this country wanted something done. their representatives – our employees, did not follow the wishes of the majority. What would you do if your employee did not follow what you told them? I am sick and tired of hearing about how the right to bear arms trumps the right of children to live in safety or trumps the right of the rest of us to be protected in some way from those with records of violence or mental illness from obtaining guns, a position the NRA endorsed years ago. Those that want smaller government...try decreasing the money given to organizations like the NRA who spend it on lobbying and paying off officials. They are just a front for the gun industry, not the law abiding gun owner. No reason for assult weapons, every reason for background checks. Those that took the cowardly way out by voting against these measures, the blood of future victims are on your hands. Lets get reasonable people, the 2nd amendment was written at a time when none of these weapons existed! And those paranoid enough to think tha tthe government needs to be overthrown, good luck to you with your hand helld weapons. Your just delusional
ghostriter – Although the Brady law did not require multiple sales reports for long guns, including the military-style assault rifles favored by Mexican drug cartels, President Obama has tried to crack down on traffickers in those weapons.
ROFL!!! Wait... the same Obama who HELPED Mexican drug cartels acquire military weapons which were used in several bloody murder sprees? ...the same Obama who admitted his involvement by hiding information through Executive Privilege (which is only used if the information is in regards to the President or his direct advisors?
Who are a funny little liberal...
@briawinde....yes agree those liberals must go!!!!
@Blah blah the wheel's off your trailer....you are an idiot, they are trying to disarm them of nukes not all weapons, BIG difference!!! Typical of people like you just resort to childish completely false comparisons!
It's always a good day in America when we get to buy guns ... better guns ... guns, guns ... and more guns. You'd think it was our number one national past-time the way you folks are celebrating and promoting gun manufacturing.
The silliness about how "anyone can buy a gun over the internet without a check" is getting ridiculous.
The only way one can legally buy without a check is in a face to face transaction with a resident of their own state. I have bought a number of guns online and every one of them had to be sent to a federally licensed dealer who, after adding a minimum of $25 for their trouble performed a background check (charging the buyer the $10 fee the .gov charges them). Yes, you can advertise a gun on the internet and have the buyer come to your house and sell it without a background, but since most sites like craigslist ban the advertising of guns, such transactions are extremely rare. The vast majority of private sales are among family, friends and acquaintances at gun ranges.
@Blah blah the wheel's off your trailer.....of course now if all else fails, call them racist!!! You are a mindless sheep!!