Deal Reached on NICS Issue

It looks like the NICS deal with the Democrats has come to light:

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date, as well as 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.

It looks like we have won some real concession out of this bill. I’m holding final judgment until I can see the language of the bill itself, but it appears what we’ll get is:

  • Ability to remove prohibited status for people with minor infractions. Read, Lautenberg crap? I hope so.
  • The 83,000 Military veterans screwed in 2000 would be able to challenge their prohibited status for mental health issues.
  • Feds may not charge a fee for NICS checks. Federal government will assume 100% of financing for states to get their information up to date and accurate.
  • Faulty records must be scrubbed from the system
  • Carolyn McCarthy gets handed a gigantic snub politically, since the NRA would not work with her. Her bill will be supplanted by this one.

I know we’ll have folks who will say the NRA has sold us out, but I think we’ve won some real concessions over this bill. The ability to remove prohibited status is a big step in the right direction, and something we’ve not had for years.

NICS will have more records, this is true, but a lack of NICS record doesn’t affect actual prohibited status. The Virginia Tech murderer’s absence from NICS did not make him lawfully able to buy a gun. By ATF’s guidelines, he was a prohibited person. This bill seems to allow people to actually challenge and remove prohibited status for minor infarctions.

Like I said, I will reserve judgment until I see some actual language, but I’m prepared to say OK to this deal. If that makes me a sellout, so be it. I see this deal as half a step backwards and a whole step forward, which to me is better than just getting crapped on.

UPDATE:

Captain Ed likes the deal
Bitter does too.
Joe Huffman doesn’t like the sound of it.

7 thoughts on “Deal Reached on NICS Issue”

  1. 07Mar87 I had an Inferior myocardial infarction. Until your post today, I didn’t realize that made me a prohibited person. Neither did any of the people who sold me guns.

    Please tell me you meant infractions.:)

  2. this would be a big deal, if only because it would demonstrate that “compromise” means both sides have to give something up, even if they’re discussing gun laws. that alone would be a worthwhile precedent.

  3. We won’t know until we see the actual bill. We must keep a close eye on this, because there could be attempts by certain factions in Congress to turn this into something that will screw us. Based on what the WaPo is saying, it looks like it would, but until we have a bill, we won’t know.

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