No sooner had Democrats finished ramming through their $1.9 trillion economic relief/spending bill with zero Republican support, when they moved on to their next agenda item: gun control. On Thursday, House Democrats passed two bills---H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446---both aimed at expanding background checks for firearms purchases and transfers. Specifically, H.R. 8 would require a background check even for the transfer of firearms between two private parties, while H.R. 1446 would extend the background check waiting period for up to 30 days.
Gun rights advocates warn these bills are only a dangerous beginning for the gun-grabber movement. "Our biggest concern with H.R. 8 is that it doesn't work unless you create a national firearm registry," says Mark Oliva, public affairs director for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). "Under this bill, every law abiding gun owner in America would be put on a government watch list...that means the government is going to know who you are, where your guns are, and how many guns you have. And that is always the first step to confiscation."
This gun control push shouldn't come as a surprise, considering President Biden himself recently called for anti-gun legislation, including expanded background checks and banning so-called "assault weapons" and "high capacity magazines."
Biden used the anniversary of the Parkland, Florida school shooting to make that announcement, while Democrats have pointed to mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Sutherland Springs, Texas in pushing for these new laws. But Oliva points out this legislation wouldn't have prevented any of those incidents. "All the people in those tragedies, who committed those crimes, passed the same background check that (Democrats) now want to force on every law-abiding gun owner," he says.
"We should be looking to find other ways where we can make the background check system work as intended, instead of expanding it out and trying to make a criminal out of someone who just wants to sell a gun to their neighbor who they've known for the past ten years," says Oliva.