Bucshon: Bills about guns are in the air in Washington

EVANSVILLE — Bills about guns are in the air in Washington.

Whatever people at 8th District Congressman Larry Bucshon's town hall thought about the session, they had to admit he was right about that.

H.R. 8, passed by the Democratic-controlled House by a margin of 240-190 on Feb. 27, would require a background check for every firearm sale. California Congressman Mike Thompson, its sponsor, calls H.R. 8 a "universal background checks bill that will help keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them."

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The bill was introduced on the eighth anniversary of the Tucson, Arizona, shooting that wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

"The background check requirement for firearms sales in current federal law is riddled with loopholes that make it far too easy for dangerous people to get guns. It is time we expand these checks to include all gun sales,” said New York Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

But the National Rifle Association argues H.R. 8 is too extreme.

"Supporters of (H.R. 8) want Americans to believe that criminals who currently obtain firearms through illegal markets and straw purchasers will somehow stop when all private transfers are banned. There is, of course, no evidence or logic to support that.

"What is true, however, is that H.R. 8 would make innocent conduct like handing over a shotgun to a neighbor so he could borrow it for skeet shooting a federal crime."

A second bill, H.R. 1112, passed the House by a 228-198 margin. The bill is designed to fix what supporters call "the Charleston loophole" that allows the sale of a firearm to go forward if a background check is not completed within three days.

Democratic Congressman James Clyburn, the bill's sponsor, blames the "loophole" for the 2015 racially motivated attack at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine people.

"As we discovered after the tragedy, the assailant used a firearm that was purchased through a loophole in our background check system, and thousands of weapons slip through this loophole each year," Clyburn said.

The Congressional Research Service states that H.R. 1112 "would extend the delayed transfer period from three business days to 10 business days when a background check yields information that suggests that an unlicensed prospective transferee might be prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms."

After 10 business days, the purchaser could petition the government to move more quickly to make its decision on eligibility.

And under H.R. 1112, a federally licensed gun dealer "could proceed with the transfer at his or her discretion if he or she had not received a final eligibility determination within 10 business days of the petition," the CRS states.

But the NRA said H.R. 1112 "seeks to do away with a critical provision of federal law that prevents the FBI from effectively vetoing retail gun purchases by indefinitely delaying firearm background checks."

"Under current law, a licensed dealer can (but is not required to) release a firearm to a purchaser three business days after initiating the mandatory NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) check if the FBI has failed to render a decision on the check," the NRA states.

"H.R. 1112 seeks to make NICS even more burdensome and intrusive by abolishing this safety valve and establishing a new three-step procedure for unresolved NICS checks," the NRA states.

"But... the original NICS check might well expire before this three-step process is complete, sending the purchaser back into the same loop of waiting, perhaps again and again."

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