It is common practice in DC for politicians to stuff spending bills with all sorts of additional bad legislation — the policy equivalent of being overcharged for a meal that gives you food poisoning. This week’s vote is no exception.
As Axios and others have reported, Congressional leadership has included the “Fix NICS” bill into the package. The legislation gives new funding and power to Federal agencies to add on to the national background check registry. As Thomas Massie and other pro-2nd Amendment advocates have noted, it is precisely these sort of registries that have been used in the past to limit American gun ownership rights without due process. As Jose Niño noted on the Wire this week, this is part of a long time trend of governments using “mental health” designations to disenfranchise citizens. (This week is one of several particularly concerning aspects of recent legislation passed in Florida.)
Of course these concerns pre-date the most recent gun control debate, as I noted when the bill came up last December:
While Republicans and supporters of the NRA may not fear the Trump Administration coming after their guns, it is obviously reckless to grant additional power and resources to future administrative states that may be quite hostile to the right to gun ownership. To put it simply, there is never a good reason to give Federal agencies the power the revoke an individual’s ability to lawfully purchase a weapon without due process.
Further, if one needed an example of how dangerous it is to centralize gun legislation in Washington DC, look no further to what gun owners in states like Ohio and Hawaii are currently facing. Both states, having recently legalized the use of medical marijuana, have placed those who need it with the choice of either owning a gun or receiving life-improving medicine.
In 2011, the Federal government sent a letter to licensed gun dealers reiterating that marijuana users were prohibited from owning a gun — even if it they have a medical prescription. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision last year. Hawaii, which requires gun registration, has gone as far as to sending letters to permitted gun owners with marijuana prescriptions requiring they turn over their weapon. While the state is currently asking for “voluntary cooperation,” it could be a matter of time before it turns into compulsory compliance.
At that time the NRA tried to sell this legislation as a way of helping promote a national concealed carry reciprocity law (which is also not a great idea.) That legislation is not included in this spending bill, and yet the NRA continues to oddly find itself promoting legislation sponsored by Diane Feinstein.
