Keep your eyes on this one...

What H.R. 45 Does

The legislation has three main components.

1. Increasing requirements for firearms purchases.


2. Creating a national firearms registry overseen by the Federal Government.


3. Stiffen penalties for bookkeeping errors related to the Federal Firearms Database formed in section 2.

To purchase a firearm a person would be required to pass a written firearms examination, release all health records -- including mental heath records -- to the Attorney General's office, and submit to a two-day waiting period, as well as pay an "appropriate" fee of $25 per firearm.

Additionally, every firearm sale would be recorded in a database, which would track the serial number, make, model and identity of the owner. The legislation would also make all private sales of firearms illegal, and a felony offense.

In addition to these regulations, the legislation includes excessive regulations and penalties for bureaucratic missteps from simple failures to report address changes to failure to report stolen weapons.

Provisions of H.R. 45 include:

Requires passing a written examination to purchase a firearm.

Releases medical records -- including confidential mental health records -- to the Attorney General for Government review.

Requires a two-day waiting period on all firearms purchases.

Institutes a fee of $25 or more on all firearm purchases.

Creates a national database with all firearms and firearms owners registered by serial number with the Federal Government.

A Federal ban on all private firearms sales.

Increases in penalties for clerical errors related to this national firearms registry.

You can read the full text of the bill here.

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Who's sponsoring H.R. 45

H.R. 45 -- President Obama's National Gun Registry and Citizen Disarmament Act -- was written by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush (D). It currently has no cosponsors.

Representative Rush was a founding member of the Illinois Black Panther Party in 1968. The Black Panthers are a radical and militant organization.

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But will it pass Congress?
Congressman Rush's bill an outrageous destruction of Constitutional Rights, but it's the compromises that are truly dangerous

Though far-left gun-haters routinely sponsor pie-in-the-sky legislation (anyone remember the days of Sen. Moynihan's annual 1000% tax on ammo?), H.R. 45 has set new lows for the depths to which hoplophobes will sink.

Is H.R. 45 dangerous? Yes. But is it likely to pass? No.... it's too far-reaching.

What is likely to pass, though, is a compromise, a deal cut with the gun-grabbers and the group that ostensibly represents gun owners, the NRA.

Think that can't happen? Rewind to the summer of 2007, when arch gun-hater Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy sat down with NRA board member Congressman John Dingell to craft a deal to expand Brady Checks into new realms of mental health records. A few months later, H.R. 2640 passed...with the approval of the NRA and McCarthy.

Congressman Rush's gun control ideas are much, much more dangerous as amendments to legislation that is already advancing.

Remember the Brady Bill? It didn't pass as a stand-alone bill. It passed as an amendment.

Even more frightening was that it passed with the approval of the NRA (click here for that full story)

The same is true of the Lautenberg Domestic Abuse ban, the Assault Weapons ban, 1986 McClure-Volkmer (which bans the manufacture of transferable machine guns), the 1968 Gun Control Act, and numerous other examples (especially if you look at state legislation).

Yes, we're watching H.R. 45. But beware the slight of hand -- it's often more dangerous.

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That an elected official representing the people could even think up this garbage just goes to show how sad things really are. I may burn out on the bad news before summer...

Scott