Bruce Braley (D-IA), Representative for the First Congressional District, is looking for your input on gun control. In a survey on his congressional website regarding Universal Background Checks, Rep. Braley says:
[cp_quote style=”quote_normal_dark”]The high level of gun violence inside our nation’s schools is simply unacceptable. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in December of 2012 was followed by shootings at dozens of other schools around the country. Something must be done to stop this senseless and tragic violence.
However, several pieces of legislation addressing gun safety have been considered by Congress, but not a single one has passed.
One proposal includes instituting universal background checks to close loopholes to prevent guns being sold to people who aren’t allowed to own them — like those with previous criminal convictions or mental health problems.
Take my quick survey: Do you think that Congress should pass a gun safety law requiring all individuals to undergo a brief background check prior to purchasing a gun?[/cp_quote]
We all know the answer to that question, so CLICK HERE and take a few moments today to respond to Rep. Braley’s survey to tell him that Universal Background Checks are a bad idea, and inform him of one or a few of the following points:
- Criminals obviously don’t do background checks, thus any changes or additions to background check laws only affect people who obey the law, unfairly and unnecessarily increasing their burden.
- Much like a restraining order, background checks don’t prevent violent crime anyway. To criminals, such laws are simply words on paper somewhere to be ignored.
- The only way to enforce a Universal Background Check system would be to enact a universal gun registration system, which is absolutely not an option and we will not even entertain such a notion under any circumstance.
- There are already tens of thousands of gun laws across the country, and they’re clearly not doing the trick. One more gun law isn’t going to magically solve the violence problem, so Congress should focus on enforcing the laws it previously enacted, rather than grasping at straws making new ones for the P.R. purposes of appearing to be working for the public good.
- The government barely prosecutes attempted gun purchasers who are rejected by the current background check system, so adding more transactions to the system for the alleged purposes of stopping crime is laughable at best.
- Our privately owned guns are our private property. The government has no business being involved in a private transaction of private property, and a background check is therefore yet another invasion of our privacy perpetrated by the government.
- There is no such thing as “gun crime” any more than there is such a thing as “knife crime” or “baseball bat crime.” There is only crime–violent crime, in this case. Thus all laws beginning from the premise that such a thing as “gun crime” exists begin from a false premise, and are therefore philosophically “bad law” in a Rule of Law society such as ours. So instead of taking a “Band-Aid approach” to crime by merely treating symptoms, Congress should stop trying to merely look good and actually address the root causes of crime, such as broken families and households, poor education, and joblessness. Any cop can attest that most felons they arrest share one or more of these characteristics.
- The majority of felonies are committed by previously convicted felons. Various studies report the rate of recidivism between two-thirds and three-fourths. As violent crimes–including those committed with firearms–are typically felonies, it stands to reason that one very good way to make violent crime drop by a dramatic 66-77% would be to keep felons in prison.
As always, I know we can count on you to make your voices heard, because when it comes to guarding our civil rights, it’s all hands to the middle here at the Iowa Firearms Coalition!
Fighting for your Second Amendment Rights in Iowa,
Barry B. Snell
IFC Communications Director
NRA Member
Simply put. By merely questioning for additional laws indicates Bailey’s ignorance. The current laws do not deter criminals. Braley is only arming criminals and victimizing citizens of Iowa. You will not get my vote. Period. And I will actively campaign against him.
Criminals, by their very nature, do not obey laws and will acquire things they are not allowed to possess through unlawful means. Passing additional laws regulating firearms are only a method of controlling those who, by their nature, are law abiding. In fact, there is no such thing as gun control. There is only people control.
Law abiding Citizens help create laws to protect possessions and private property. Subjects have laws and judgments passed upon them.
Citizens, do not wish to be controlled. I will never vote for someone who acts like they want to control Subjects!
What is needed is something called “prison” for those who abuse their 2nd Amendments, with no allowance for “judicial discrimination”. Simple possession during the commission of a crime should be good for 10 years. Firing a gun during same would earn 15. Injuring someone with one during same would get 25. If death results, then it’s worth a minimum 50 years to life. No parole. No pardons. No commutations. Just a whole lot of hard time, preferably with a ball and chain for jewelry and a 20 pound sledgehammer to make little rocks out of big rocks. You’ll do every second of your sentence, no less, no more. I am a pardoned felon who has seen some very nasty things happen, and did not condone them then or now. If you think long sentences don’t deter, tell me how many you see lined up at Fort Madison asking to be housed for 15 or 20 years. No number of gun control schemes will ever work – hell, the laws we have now don’t discourage many. I never met an armed criminal who bought his firearm legally. They were all stolen, loaned, or borrowed – usually 10% of the take for the latter two. Forget background checks – any thug worth his salt will have all kinds of false identification. Don’t waste your time on this nonsensical crap.
Dear Mr. Braley, are you that naive that you think background checks are the answer? Perhaps you have another agenda and think that fanning the flames by mentioning school shootings will generate support for you. I have already gone thru several background checks, I wonder how many criminals have done the same. They will get their weapons without a background check as the have always done. By definition they have already broken laws so what makes you think that they will obey this one? It is a bad law that would be unenforceable. All this law would do is aggravate a large portion of Iowa voters.
Very few legal transactions take place without a background check. For several years most sellers that have listed a weapon in a classified have asked for a face to face transaction with the buyer having a drivers license and permit to carry or permit to acquire both indicating that the buyer has been through a background check.
As for illegal transactions? What is another law going to change?
For the record I graduated from Des Moines Roosevelt in 1972 and several of us brought rifles to school and would go shooting afterwards, the thought of using one to harm a teacher or classmate never crossed our minds.
No way, enforce the laws that are all ready on the books.
We don’t need background checks! We need our full rights under the 2nd amendment restored! We parents held accountable for their kids. We needs to stop parenting with drugs! Kids need to be educated on guns at an early age. Kids need to be taught self defense. Teaching our kids to run and hide makes them a sitting duck. Almost anything can be used as a weapon. There will never be a total safe zone, no matter how many laws you pass. You can’t legislate crazy people. All you do with laws is empower the dregs of society. Use common sense.
There are already laws that outline who may own a gun, and who may not. How about we enforce those, first?
We WILL NOT fix the problem by introducing another law.
The reason they are called criminals is that they are committing crimes. By definition (and by their example), they ignore the law. They do it as their own warped version of work.
If you [Mr Braley] believe that the current laws don’t work, but you are not willing to REQUIRE the Executive branch to enforce the current laws, perhaps you should step out of the way and allow to do what you are not doing.
NO, the lies that come from the braley camp and the rest of the anti-gun camp never seem to stop. We here in Iowa ALREADY HAVE background checks at every gun show and gun dealer. The ONLY reason for “universal background checks” will be to start a registry of all guns and gun owners. The first step in gun confiscation. NOT ONE criminal will go through back ground checks and will still get their guns the same way they have always gotten them. From theft, from trading drugs, from buying on the black market……..it is time to make sure bruce braley is not elected to the Senate, nor anyone who supports legislation like this.
Brief background checks would be useful and desired by the majority of people if there was a federal database of those that cannot legally own a firearm due to criminal or mental barriers or whatnot — but not a federal registry of actual firearm owned by individuals — and if the check was something that could be completed in a few minutes by any person involved in the transfer of a firearm; which would mean the service would need to be, essentially, free and available online.
Harsher penalties for people transferring firearms to criminals are good. Harsher penalties for crimes involving firearm use are good. Federally regulated and funded, mandatory training in safety and competency for firearm ownership in order to carry, open or concealed, anywhere not on that person’s private property are good.
The legislation proposed in Congress tends to be unreasonable or undesirable because of attached issues and legislation that go far beyond just establishing brief and easily accessible background checks.
Background checks are basically a red herring, as proposed in most recent legislation..
FORM 4473- cant you read or are you another mope? its there already, but you either want more or english is a second languae for you- I wont be nice to imbecilic politicians or LEO who try to dictate the constitution plus various state stats- wise up or lose your job- we vote in the NRA and we WIIL get rid of you.
I agree with others that have made comments. There are enough laws on the books now that should be enforced. You damn politicians are always wasting money on non-required laws. If you don’t enforce the current laws now why go after the law abiding citizens. There’s already gun free zones and the crazies still go to those zones because they don’t want people defending them selves. Work current problem without creating more problems for the tax payers.
The Braley survey site will not let me submit a NO answer from my smart phone. It will only accept yes or don’t know .
Will try from PC when I get home later.
Be interested to know if others have this same problem.
Dave
We have enough laws with back ground checks.
In a word… NO!!!
Stop wasting our tax dollars on this kind of crap! Catch the bad guys and put them in jail… its that simple!!!
If the current gun laws were enforced as they are intended, there is NO need for further.
The politicians continue their campaign to “law the country” to death.
Americans have no stomach for the current breed, and most wannabes, of congress who refuse to protect our borders and civil rights, want to mess with the constitution, attack anyone who disagrees with them; the list goes on and on and ….
Criminals, by their very nature, do not obey laws and will acquire things they are not allowed to possess through unlawful means. Passing additional laws regulating firearms are only a method of controlling those who, by their nature, are law abiding. In fact, there is no such thing as gun control. There is only people control. I, as an independent thinking man who obeys laws, do not wish to be controlled. I will never vote for someone who feels they know what is best for me in spite of myself.
We have enough laws on the books . The only people who follow them are the law abiding people. One thing I read was that of all the mass shootings we had they all had one thing in common.they were on prescription medications that alter moods . Maybe we should be checking on the drugs they take and see why this is happening
I’m tired of the anti-gunners always lumping the “bad guy” with the “good guys” !! Do your homework anti-gunners…….you will find that crimes committed with guns by “legal” gun owners is approx. 1% …or less. Why does the other 99% have to be penalized because someone steals a gun, obtains one through a underground black market, etc., and then commits a crime ? History proves universal background checks lead to national gun registration. If you don’t know the results of national gun registration you’d better get out the history book ! Is this a country of minority rule………or majority rule ?
We already have a background check in place, criminals don’t use the process as it is. They steal guns to use in crimes
Background checks have never prevented criminals from getting guns. It only punishes honest, decent American Families. There are already hundreds of gun laws to enforce,
and none of them have prevented, nor will more laws prevent these tragedies.
It will only further punish those who would only use guns to protect their families.
Do not fall for the deception of more background checks unless those applying for
guns are Illegal Aliens, Drug Cartel thugs and the like. They always manage to get
guns regardless of the law.
The hardened criminals will not go through proper procedures to get their guns. They are always obtained illegally. Background checks do nothing to stop it.
Give it a rest. Plenty of laws on the books. Enforce existing laws. Crooks, mentally I’ll, and those bent on violence don’t obey the laws now. More restrictive laws on law abiding gun owners have no effect on violent crimes.
What happened since high schoolers in Oklahoma used to come to school with a rifle in the rack of the pick-up to now? Did the guns get more violent? Or is it the people who have changed? Perhaps we need to go back to teaching gun safety in the schools like we used to? Perhaps it’s the results of the Progressive Liberal’s welfare for votes state. People, whose only real purpose in life is to vote for cynics like Brayley, lead empty lives of hopelessness as Uncle Sammy becomes momma and daddy. I bet if we start there, at the root of the democrat’s power base, we can find better answers than just doing the same legislating as we’ve already done.
There is no need for a “universal” background check, we already have one of the best called NICS, conducted by the U.S. government thru the BATF, and it is successful. And, per the FBI Crime Report, gun violence has been declining over the past 10 years. These gun crimes, such as school shootings, theaters, etc., are a product of mentally ill individuals and no number of background checks will pre-determine that condition. And it appears that these shooters have already decided to take their own lives after they inflict what ever damage (punishment ?) they want to do. What we need is a better testing and reporting of accurate mental illnesses, annual or semi-annual mental illness tests of all attendee’s of schools and in the work place, to determine when, and if, an individual is reaching a frame of mind caused by some stressor, to take drastic actions against their fellow human beings. And then we need a court system to prosecute to the fullest any shooters who survive their own actions. And last, we need qualified, armed, under-cover people (not necessarily law enforcement) in every school during the hours the school has activities. The cost would be less than more gun control laws, and their ineffective background checks, and enforcement would cost the public. It’s a simple solution, really.
1. Guns are not the problem. Gun restriction laws to stop things like Sandy Hook is like restricting the sale of matches to stop fires.
2. Gun laws only affect law abiding citizens, not criminals or mentally ill people.
3. The problem is a lack or moral virtue in the people which started to decline drastically when prayer and bibles were taken out of public schools and politically correct culture began to be mainstream.
Make your decision, but as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.
We already have universal background checks if you want to purchase a firearm, weather at a gun show or gun shop or even walmart. So what is the purpose of this survey
I do not think there should be universal background checks.
No. There are already laws on the books that do exactly what you propose congress should pass. ENFORCE the laws that are there.
Let it rest. There are enough laws on the books now that should be enforced. You damn politicians are always wasting money on non-required laws.