Democrats and NRA Strike Gun Control Deal

Senior Democrats have reached agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date and penalties for failing to comply.

To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators in weeks of painstaking talks.

Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental-health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records.


SOURCE:
Seattle Times

Democrats and the NRA agreeing on a gun control deal, that's just something you hardly
ever expect to hear.

I'm glad to see this though, I may be a supporter of the 2nd amendment,
but I also believe in
licensing and keeping those who should'nt have them (violent criminals
and the mentally ill)
from having them, so this is definitely something I'm glad to see happening.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 6/10/2007 by iori_komei]

This will not do anything to keep criminals from getting firearms. Firearms are completely banned in China and they get them there. This is only going to lead to more legislation in the future that makes gun control even tighter, unless they take that recent Washington ruling to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court rules that firearms bans are completely unconstitutional.

A right is a right. You do not need a license to read whatever you want, or to eat whatever you want, etc...armed societies are polite societies. The people who will use guns to harm others rarely obtain them legally.

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date and penalties for failing to comply.

Okay, so, the phrase "participating states" leads me to believe this is wholly voluntary. How is that any differsnt from the currwent situation?

These participating states will be given "monetary enticements" to keep the federal database up to date? Sound to me like the fed wants to bribe states to go along with another step of the National I.D..

But the bit about penalties for failing to comply puzzels me. How can you penalize a non-participating state for failing to comply?

This smells like some more B.S. legislation for the sake of image and P.R..

Just in case any measure of anit-gun nonsense is gaining ground I've been saving cash to do a little assualt weapons 'panic' buying when the time is right.