Led by John Cornyn of Texas, ten Republican senators have agreed to a gun control "compromise," which will give Democrats the 60 votes they need for a filibuster-proof majority. While the bill is still being drafted, one of the provisions for which the framework calls is federal dollars to bribe state legislators into enacting "red flag" gun confiscation laws.
"The federal government, under the Murphy Amendment, proposes to fund the 19 states that have them," notes Mike Hammond, legislative counsel to Gun Owners of America (GOA). "There's no due process whatsoever, but they take money from the pro-gun states that choose not to obliterate the Constitution and give it to the anti-gun states for the purpose of spitting and tearing apart the Constitution."
Other provisions in the framework (as described by GOA) include:
- Delayed and expanded background checks for citizens under the age of 21.
- Definition changes to federal firearms licenses that GOA says could be a backdoor way to universal background registration checks.
- New federal offenses related to "gun trafficking" that GOA warns could inadvertently be applied to an individual, making him or her a felon.
Other GOP senators identified by GOA as supporters of the compromise are Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Roy Blunt (Missouri), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).
Hammond, however, hopes at least one of the ten can be convinced to walk away from this "assault" on Americans' Second Amendment rights.
"When they see what the language of this is, then they're going to be even more concerned," he predicts. "If [Roy] Blunt flakes off, if [Bill] Cassidy flakes off, if anyone decides that they're not in with the language once it's produced, then it doesn't pass."
Hammond says senators need to know that gun owners will not let them get away with calling this a "compromise."
