Act Five, Scene Five, of William Shakespeare’s “Richard II” famously sees the eponymous protagonist locked in a tower, lamenting the fact that he did not act to stem the tide of woe that has taken his kingdom, expressing his frustration by saying:
I wasted time, and now time doth waste me.
And such it could be for those of us who cherish liberty for ourselves, our neighbors and our progeny, for we fight a daily battle against distractions, from the internal vexations of aches and pains and worries and gripes, to the external, particularly the useless noise of celebrity and political-personality culture that is, also as The Bard said, this time in “Macbeth”:
…full of sound and fury… Signifying nothing.
Let's not waste any more time with those useless distractions. This is very important.
On September 10, Senator Cory “Spartacus” Booker (D-NJ) introduced for his co-sponsor Sen. Richard “The Hero” Blumenthal (D-CT) S. 2449, the “Federal Firearm Licensing Act,” something that, while the pop media repeatedly bangs the drums for “Red Flag” bills, “licensing,” and “registration,” this quietly will do, and is working its way through the Judiciary Committee, sans hardly a peep from those very same pop media outlets.
The bill will make it “unlawful for any individual to purchase or receive a firearm unless the individual has a valid Federal firearms license.”
That’s big.
What’s needed to get the magic “license”? The US Attorney General will establish the system for issuing said permission slips, based on a number of shocking “S. 2449” mandates that ought to energize anyone who respects his neighbor’s right to self-defense, medical privacy, inheritance, private trade, and personal data.
First, there’s the federally-decided “training” program, which, itself, would require a written test and a “hands-on” demonstration by the supplicant/serf/citizen in front of his master, the government agent – something that’s completely open to arbitrariness and favoritism for the politicians to select only certain “friends” of the government to offer the “training” programs.
Then there’s the “background check,” which not only requires “proof of identity” and fingerprints, it contains two other dangerous and anti-rights requirements.
First, it goes far beyond denial due to violent felonious charges, which is typically the standard for denying convicted felons their right to keep and bear arms. It creates a list of ambiguous, amorphous, invasive, anti-privacy, open-ended categories any one of which the Attorney General may choose as a reason to deny you your God-given right to self-defense:
Denial
(I)
In general
The Attorney General may deny a license under this section if the Attorney General determines that the applicant poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others by possessing, purchasing, or receiving a firearm, after examining factors the Attorney General considers are relevant to the determination, including—
(aa)
history of threats or acts of violence toward self or others;
(bb)
history of use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force by the applicant against another person;
(cc)
whether the applicant is the subject of or has violated a domestic violence or stalking restraining order or protection order;
(dd)
any prior arrest, pending charge, or conviction for a violent or serious crime or disorderly persons offense, stalking offense, or domestic violence offense;
(ee)
any prior arrest, pending charge, or conviction for an offense involving cruelty to animals;
(ff)
history of drug or alcohol abuse or involvement in drug trafficking;
(gg)
any recent acquisition of firearms, ammunition, or other deadly weapons; and
(hh)
involvement in firearms trafficking or unlawful firearms transfers; and
(ii)
history of unsafe storage or handling of firearms.
Bear in mind, every one of those is a standard to be determined by a single person, the US Attorney General. The so-called “history of threats or acts of violence towards others” can be as harsh as murder convictions, or as simple as a single report of arguing with a neighbor or political opponent on the street fifty years earlier. Even if there was no prosecution, if you are reported, it will be red meat for the Atty. Gen.
The “attempted use of physical force” does not single-out aggressive force, nor does it require a felonious conviction for battery or assault.
The portion pertaining to “disorderly persons” leaves virtually any innocent person open to arbitrary on-the-scene police description of what is “disorderly”, and all one need do is look up YouTube videos (before YouTube might pull them down) to see how easy it is for police officers to create their own standards about what is “disorderly.”
Unsafe storage? Who decides what’s safe? This is an obvious infringement of the Fourth Amendment, allowing agents of the state to determine whether you are “storing” your own property according to whatever standards they decide that Zodiacal year. It is arrogant, conceited, and utterly offensive to the right to privacy.
And if you’ve purchased any arms or ammunition prior to trying to get the new gun, the Attorney General can deny you a new license.
What’s that, you say? “Wouldn’t a person already have gotten a license for that earlier firearm?”
Well, well… It turns out that S. 2449 also requires a separate license for EVERY firearm you try to own, or inherit, or trade. And the licenses only last five years. Then you have to go through the whole process again, for each license/gun.
Oh, and the Attorney General can wait 30 days before issuing you your wonderful “permission slip.” That surely will be welcome news for any woman who might feel that a “restraining order”, aka a piece of paper, might not be enough to stop a violent person attacking her, and who might want a GUN to protect herself.
Oh, and if you ever visited a doctor for stress, sleeplessness, or PTSD? Watch out.
This is important: Not only is S. 2449 a clear infringement of the Second Amendment, and of the deeper, timeless, right to self-defense – not only is it a threat that armed agents of the state will come for you and threaten you if you do not live according to the state dictates – S. 2449 is a gun registration bill.
They might not want you to think so, but according to this bill, every gun needs a license, and each gun will have its “serial number” logged to go with the licensee.
Which is precisely what the Nazis used to round up guns (and people) in Germany.
Shortly before Hitler took power, the Weimar government created a “gun registration list”, so the SS didn’t need to create one when they took away guns from innocent, peaceful people.
What S 2449 signifies cannot be overlooked.
One cannot let himself or herself become distracted by whatever new insult a politician might have tossed at another.
It’s time discuss this legislation and defend rights, before our rights are lain to waste.