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Gun Owners of America strongly objects to the Senate amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 2617 (hereafter \u201cOmnibus\u201d) because it is infested with Second Amendment infringements.<\/p>\n
GOA will score all votes to advance the anti-gun appropriations package unless each of the following gun control provisions are struck from the bill:<\/p>\n
It is an outrage that any legislator sworn to uphold the Constitution and the Second Amendment would even consider passing a 4,155-page $1.7 trillion appropriations bill with so many gun control provisions. Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed. Each gun control must be struck from any final government appropriations package in order to respect the Second Amendment and eliminate opposition from gun owners.<\/p>\n
In order to facilitate its gun registration schemes,[2]<\/sup><\/a> the Biden Administration\u2019s ATF requested a 13% budgetary increase.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Instead, the Omnibus proposes an even larger 14% budgetary increase for ATF to facilitate all of President Biden\u2019s Second Amendment infringements and then some![4]<\/a> Should the Omnibus be enacted, Congress will have allowed the ATF\u2019s budget to increase by nearly 25% since the Trump Administration.<\/u><\/strong> While the ATF\u2019s actions in recent years have violated the Second Amendment and will criminalize millions of otherwise law-abiding gun owners, the agency is only emboldened by Congress\u2019 massive budgetary increases.<\/p>\n To understand, look no further than the upcoming rule, proposed by the Biden Administration, which the ATF has begun describing as an \u201cAmnesty Registration\u201d for certain stabilizing brace pistols.[5]<\/a> Using CRS estimates for braced firearm ownership, this amnesty will affect the owners of up to 40,000,000 pistols.[6]<\/a> This is why House Report 117-395 (which is authorized in the Senate Appropriations Committee\u2019s Explanatory Statement for Division B of the Omnibus) \u201cassumes that within the resources provided, ATF will prioritize funding for the National Firearms Act Division to improve firearms licensing processing timelines.\u201d[7]<\/a> A vote for this funding increase is a vote to facilitate Biden\u2019s pistol registration scheme.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Note:<\/em><\/strong> ATF reports to have processed 512,315 NFA gun registration forms in 2020.[8]<\/strong><\/a> Assuming no further backlog and assuming all affected gun owners comply with gun registration, it would take the ATF over 78 years to process all the pistol registration forms.<\/em><\/p>\n In the ATF\u2019s FY 2023 appropriations request, the agency asked for $14,400,000 to modernize the National Tracing Center [NTC], which is the branch that maintains, accesses, and searches ATF\u2019s digital and searchable gun registries.[11]<\/sup><\/a> This funding would \u201c[i]ncrease[] by more than 40% the funding for the National Tracing Center.\u201d[12]<\/sup><\/a> ATF is transparent with exactly how the system will be \u201cmodernized\u201d:<\/p>\n This initiative to consolidate firearms tracing applications through an eTrace modernization effort with enhanced data sharing capabilities will serve as a key building block in significantly improving the operational proficiency of the NTC Division.[13]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n This data sharing technology will upgrade ATF\u2019s gun registry, after which the National Tracing Center will be able to more effectively search[14]<\/sup><\/a> the 920,664,765, and growing, records in the registry[15]<\/sup><\/a> and create a door-to-door confiscation list of Americans who lawfully purchased these newly banned firearms, such as AR-15 pistols.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Note: ATF also proposes that this enhanced gun registry will not only be useful for American law enforcement, but also for the many \u201cforeign law enforcement agencies (including Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, most of Central America, parts of Western Europe, Australia, and Japan) utilizing eTrace\u201d to search for Americans\u2019 registered firearms. It is outrageous that private information regarding American\u2019s exercise of a constitutional right is available to foreign governments.<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n To help the ATF crackdown on gun owners who do not comply with this unconstitutional gun ban, the Omnibus proposes federal funding for state gun confiscation laws to the tune of \u201c$770.8 million, an increase of $96.3 million, [via] Byrne-Justice Assistance Grants (JAG).\u201d[18]<\/a> While this funding was not directly gun related in years past, the Cornyn-Murphy gun control bill falsely known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act <\/em>turned JAG grants into gun control funding by allowing them to be used to fund \u201cred flag\u201d laws and \u201cextreme risk protection order programs\u201d which include ex parte <\/em>gun confiscation.[19]<\/a><\/p>\n The intended function of these laws, which provide a simple mechanism for the government to disarm a citizen, is revealed in the context of the ATF\u2019s illegal gun registry. First, register all firearm transactions in a near-billion-record registry and then seize these firearms using this new gun confiscation procedure.<\/p>\n Under the guise of encouraging \u201cCollaboration on Lethal Means Safety\u201d at the Department of Veterans Affairs, \u00a0the Omnibus[21]<\/a> encourages \u201cVA medical centers to collaborate with state and local law enforcement and health officials in states that have adopted extreme risk protection orders, also known as \u201c\u2018red flag\u2019 laws.\u201d Veterans who fought for our Constitution and freedoms who later seek help at VA medical centers should be given the care they need, particularly mental health care and access to life-saving services and not<\/em> deprived of their Second Amendment rights without due process by bureaucrats and a tyrannical state or local government.<\/p>\n The Department of Education is to begin an unconstitutional \u201cSecure Firearm Storage\u201d program to \u201cpromote secure household firearm storage\u201d and to \u201coffer support to Federal agencies that are leading [safe storage gun control] efforts.\u201d Additional requirements make homeowners more likely to be assaulted, do not stop accidental deaths, and will not stop deranged individuals from committing acts of violence.[23]<\/a> Mandatory \u201csafe\u201d storage laws are nothing more than blatant intrusions by the government into the private home and decision-making processes of Americans.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n More regulations slow people from saving lives, not just in mass shootings but in cases of everyday home defense situations. Waking up in the middle of the night and having to either open a safe or unlock a trigger lock is like trying to unlock your phone in the rain, except in a high stress situation, in the dark, and with much greater consequences. Adding extra steps in a self-defense scenario will cost valuable minutes and human lives. Self-defense firearms must be readily accessible.<\/p>\n Even worse, locking guns away may prevent family members from being able to defend themselves. The tragic deaths of Ashley and John Williams, where a maniac stabbed them with a pitchfork in their beds, was enabled by California\u2019s strict storage laws, preventing the oldest sister from retrieving the family\u2019s firearm and to fend off the intruder.[25]<\/a><\/p>\n The Omnibus directs the Department of Health and Human Services to \u201cfocus on suicide prevention policies\u201d that will attempt to \u201climit access to firearms.\u201d[27]<\/a> Rather than focus on preventing suicidal ideation and providing pre-crisis care, the Omnibus targets firearm ownership and access. Focusing on the method, rather than the cause, will not lead to a reduction of suicides; instead, the Omnibus will disarm the vulnerable and mentally ill who might need to use a firearm in self-defense because they are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than to commit one.[28]<\/a> Additionally, it will discourage the mentally ill from getting the help they need because they risk being stripped of their rights.<\/p>\n As if that were not enough, the Omnibus instructs HHS (1) to run \u201csafe\u201d storage programs which leave guns inaccessible in self-defense scenarios, (2) to help VA maintain so-called \u201cgun storage maps\u201d so bureaucrats know where veterans keep their guns, (3) to promote \u201ctemporary out-of-home firearm storage\u201d for veterans, and (4) to promote the use of \u201cextreme risk laws\u201d commonly known as \u201cred flag\u201d gun confiscation orders which violate the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n $50,000[30]<\/a> per year will now be made available for \u201chumanitarian expenses incurred by or for any [ATF] employee thereof (or any member of the employee’s immediate family) that results from or is incident to serious illness, serious injury, or death occurring to the employee while on official duty or business.\u201d[31]<\/a> With the Biden Administration\u2019s plan to use an illegal national gun registry to confiscate millions of lawfully purchased pistols and AR-15s from gun owners, one can only wonder why Congress is planning to offer new financial benefits to ATF agents and their families if they are seriously injured or killed on the job.<\/p>\n In June, House Report 117-395 granted Rep. Thompson his earmark request to leadership and received $830,000 to fund an unconstitutional \u201cGhost Gun and Gun Violence Prevention Initiative\u201d for the City of Vallejo to harass those who exercise their constitutionally protected right to manufacture a firearm in a state which infringes on that right. However, after GOA raised awareness about the provision, the title of the earmark was watered down, marketed as merely the \u201cThe Vallejo Gun Violence Prevention Initiative\u201d and included with nearly a dozen other \u201cgun violence\u201d initiatives to the tune of $10,914,000.<\/p>\n It is anyone\u2019s guess as to exactly what ludicrous local gun controls are funded by these generically-named earmarks. Some examples would include \u201cNo Shots Fired,\u201d an anti-gun assistance program for gang members will be funded for $1.2 million and another $120,000 will be used to fund \u201cOrchid Healing Circles for Victims of Gun Violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/a>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $14.4 Million for ATF\u2019s NTC Budget to Maintain it\u2019s Illegal[9]<\/sup><\/a> Near-Billion Record Gun Registry[10]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $700+ Million in Funding Available to Bribe States to Pass \u201cRed Flag\u201d Gun Confiscation Laws[17]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Directing VA Medical Centers to Utilize Confiscation Orders on Vulnerable Veterans[20]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Department of Education to Push \u201cSafe Storage\u201d of Parents\u2019 Firearms[22]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Funding for VA to Maintain \u201cGun Storage Maps\u201d to Keep Tabs on Where Veterans Keep Guns[26]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Annual Compensation for Families of Deceased ATF Agents Could be an Indication of Upcoming Gun Confiscation[29]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/a>8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gun Control Earmarks for \u201cOrchid Healing Circles\u201d and More![32]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n