HR 45 May be More Troubling Than the Average Anti-

Mike Hammond
Gun Owners of America
February 15, 2009

Barack Obama was fond of saying during the campaign that he supported the Second Amendment. And we read of gun buyers who are flocking — while it is still legal — to purchase firearms, but who concede that they believed Obama’s assurances and voted for him.

GOA provides a summary of these bills for the benefit of our members and friends. But we do not focus on most of these bills because they are so extreme that they have no chance of passage. They are cynically introduced so that the Brady Campaign can raise money by threatening anti-gun measures it could never pass.

But the first anti-gun bill of the 111th Congress -– Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush’s H.R. 45 –- has caught the attention of many in the Second Amendment community as something we need to be worried about.

This is because of the extremity of the bill:

* H.R. 45 would require a federal license for all handguns and semiautomatics, including those you currently possess; and

* It would require handgun and semi-auto owners to be thumbprinted at the police station and to sign a certificate that, effectively, the firearm will not be kept in a place where it would be available for the defense of the gun owner’s family.

Pretty scary, huh? But, while this despotic nuttiness makes you wonder why a congressman from the Murder Capital of the Midwest would think that it would help to make the residents of New Hampshire, Alaska, and Wyoming comply with his blood-soaked city’s anti-gun laws, there have been other bills which are just as unconstitutional.

Rather, what makes H.R. 45 troubling is its sponsor and its timing.

Its sponsor is Congressman Bobby Rush –- a scion of the same super-corrupt Chicago political machine that produced disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich and President Barack Obama.

And as for its timing, it was introduced during the confirmation of Attorney General nominee Eric Holder — the man who tried exploit the Columbine tragedy in order to pass gun licensing as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration.

And make no mistake about it: Licensing is only a way-station to discouraging, arresting, or humiliating gun owners and outlawing guns. Under H.R. 45, for example, the applicant must also make available ALL of his psychiatric records, pass an exam, and pay a fee.

So… are you a veteran who has ever consulted a psychologist or psychiatrist? Guess what? The FBI would soon be examining every confidential statement you have ever made during those consultations.

Private sales of handguns and semi-autos would be outlawed, and reports to the attorney general of all transactions would be required, even when — as the bill allows — the AG determines that a state licensing system is sufficiently draconian to substitute for the federal license.

But, you may be thinking, “I’m just a hunter with a deer rifle… surely, none of this is relevant to me”?

Then you should know that, with virtually no exceptions, ALL firearms transactions (including person-to-person private sales of long guns, hunting rifles, shotguns, etc.) would be subject to the same paperwork hassles that are required when buying from a dealer.

In addition, the bill would make it unlawful in virtually all cases to keep any loaded firearm for self-defense. A variety of “crimes by omission” (such as failure to report certain things to the government) would be created.

Criminal penalties of up to ten years and virtually unlimited regulatory and inspection authority would be established.

Combined with the Ammunition Accountability effort to outlaw ammunition in numerous states, this two-pronged attack would soon make gun ownership a thing of the past.

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