I’m hearing that the bills HR5005 and HR5092 are being combined and reintroduced into The House of Representatives as a single bill. Don’t have details about the new bill just yet. They will be introduced by Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Zack Space (D-Ohio).
This is very good news folks. It means ATF reform is not dead in the water in this democratic controlled Congress. Hopefully we can keep this moving forward and get it passed, because these much needed reforms of the ATF are critical to ensuring the future of your neighborhood gun shop.
UPDATE: Countertop says in the comments:
Politically, we stand a better chance now. in the last one, Republican eyes were largely on other issues and when it came time to throw us a bone, the Dems wouldn’t let them have an easy victory.
Now, in control based largely on the election of rural red state freshman (who are all VERY vulnerable in 2008 and hence make Democratic power vulnerable) and with the gunbigots showing no benfit to Dems at the poll (and likely to lose big in the Supreme Court) this becomes a no brainer.
Read his whole comment. I hope he’s right.
That would certainly be welcome news. The fact that neither bill made it in the previous, Republican-controlled Congress (although H.R. 5092 seemed close to making it, except for Feinstein’s efforts) leads me to doubt–but I’d love to discover that my pessimism is unfounded.
I think it probably could have been passed in the previous congress, given enough time. Even if it doesn’t pass in this one, at least if we can have a vote, it’s a good way to get the politicians on record about where they stand on issues that are important to us.
I’m not super optimistic either, but at least it seems to be going somewhere.
politically, we stand a better chance now. in the last one, republican eyes were largely on other issues and when it came time to throw us a bone, the Dems wouldnt let them have an easy victory.
Now, in control based largely on the election of rural red state freshman (who are all VERY vulnerable in 2008 and hence make Democratic power vulnerable) and with the gunbigots showing no benfit to Dems at the poll (and likely to lose big in the Supreme Court) this becomes a no brainer.
They get great press for passing anything (and in fact have done nearly all they promised/needed to do to win reelection).
They get great press for responding to VA Tech
They work well with the NRA and neutralize its ability to really impact the 2008 elections
They give their freshman another easy vote (next to the farm bill and energy bill) to go back home and brag about and get reelected
Once re-elected, those freshman become entrenched incumbants and are nearly impossible to defeat, preserving Democratic rule for a few election cycles, at least.