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Posted by Francis on 10/18/2009, 5:20 pm, in reply to "HB45 Blair Holt Act"
216.10.53.154
Steve,
I was surprised by the information you posted and I have written Sen. Begich, urging him to look into this immediately and do something about it.
After writing Sen. Begich, I did go to the Snopes.com site and read what was there. The information you included in your message (the contents of an email being circulated) was followed on the Snopes site by the Snopes.com commentary, which was not part of your message. That information makes no mention of Obama Administration or inclusion in an IRS bill. Here is what the Snopes investigators say:
(Contrary to the example e-mail quoted above, the bill would not require applicants to "submit to a physical and mental evaluation at any time of their choosing"; applicants would have to authorize the release of any existing mental health records. Also, the right of inspection to ascertain compliance with the law would apply
to "any place in which firearms or firearm products are manufactured, stored, or held, for distribution in commerce," not to ordinary households.)
Proponents of the Blair Holt bill maintain that it is not an attempt to ban or otherwise infringe on the constitutional right to own or carry guns; it would simply establish a system for registering and tracking the ownership of guns that are used illegally, similar to the system currently used for automobiles. Opponents of the bill maintain that it "focuses on the instruments of crime rather than on the criminals who use the instruments," and that, rather than targeting the criminal element, it "would simply further burden law-abiding people."
As was the 2007 version of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, the current version has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and the fact that the bill does not have even a single co-sponsor makes it unlikely that it will ever be brought to a vote before Congress, much less passed. ESPN Outdoors correspondent Wade Bourne summed up the bill's chances of passage thusly:
So, how likely is the Blair Holt bill's chance for passage? Pro-gun activists are vigilant but don't seem overly worried about it. They point out that the bill's failure to attract co-sponsors is an indication of a lack of enthusiasm for it among other congressmen. They feel it is too far-reaching and repressive of gun owners' rights to merit serious consideration by a majority of Congress.
Lawrence Keane of the NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] states, "If this bill passes, Democrats would likely lose (control of) their chamber in upcoming mid-term elections (2010). The leadership in the House knows that." Keane says some 80 million-plus U.S. citizens own firearms, representing nearly half the households in the nation. He believes that House Democrats will allow the Blair Holt bill to die in subcommittee rather than risk the ire of so many pro-gun voters.
Last updated: 13 August 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/blairholt.asp
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