Five Republicans join Democrats for useless gun control

ANALYSIS/OPINION: The Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee advanced[1] a bill, H.R. 8, that would mandate[2] background checks for all firearms’ sales — and five Republicans signed on as cosponsors. If the point of the bill is to stop criminal acts of gun violence, it’s largely useless. If the point, however, is to erode Second Amendment rights under a cloak of halting gun violence — well then, we have a winner. Let the sham fest commence. “Whether intentionally or not, the gun control proposals in H.R. 8 could turn law abiding citizens into criminals while also failing to achieve the stated purpose of reducing gun violence,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, in prepared testimony in opposition to the bill that was obtained[3] by The Hill. If only all the Republicans on the committee could’ve seen similarly. Five — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania; Peter King from New York; Brian Mast of Florida; Chris Smith of New Jersey; and Fred Upton of Michigan — voted with Democrats to advance the measure. Why? Why indeed. Universal gun control checks have long been sought by the left as a chink to Second Amendment rights. Call it the domino effect; once Dems gain a couple so-called “common sense” footholds in the gun control battle, far more and far less “common sense” gun controls will come. Second Amendment supporters know[4] this; even the National Rifle Association, which misguidedly supported universal gun background checks a couple decades back has since recanted, calling them instead for what they are: a step toward federally controlled databases of all the gun owners, all the gun buyers of America. So what’s up with these five GOPers? “This is probably the most common sense legislation we’ll vote on in the 116th Congress,” Fitzpatrick said, of his support of the bill, Roll Call reported[5].

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