Its 2021, A New Congress Brings New Bills and Incoming Fire for Gun Owners

Opinion

New Jersey – -(AmmoLand.com)- There is no rest for the freedom-loving American when swamp creatures have a continual assault on our fundamental rights.  A new Congress is in session and with that comes more and more bills.  With those bills, you guessed it, more anti-civil rights bills aimed at setting the stage for disarming Americans as well as making firearm procurements as onerous as possible.

From the Lonestar State, we have an overzealous amount of bill introduction dealing with usurping law-abiding citizens their rights.  Representative Sheila Jackson Lee [D-TX18] takes the cake with her impressive offerings.

Let’s take a look at what the good Congresswoman intends for us:

• H.R. 130: To require the safe storage of firearms and ammunition, and to require the investigation of reports of improper storage of firearms or ammunition.
• H.R. 135: To require the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report to the Congress semiannually on the number of firearms transfers resulting from the failure to complete a background check within 3 business days, and the procedures followed after it is discovered that a firearm transfer has been made to a transferee who is ineligible to receive a firearm.
• H.R. 121: To provide for the hiring of 200 additional Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and investigators to enforce gun laws.
• H.R. 127: To provide for the licensing of firearm and ammunition possession and the registration of firearms, and to prohibit the possession of certain ammunition.
• H.R. 125: To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for a 7-day waiting period before a semiautomatic firearm, a silencer, armor piercing ammunition, or a large capacity ammunition magazine may be transferred.

A full play by play is hardly needed on all of these bills, they pretty much speak for themselves.

A proposal to note however is H.R. 135, which seems eerily reminiscent of Representative Brad Schneider’s bill introduced on December 11, 2020 (H.R. 8929 (116th): Default Proceed Sale Transparency Act). The text of this bill when it becomes available is going to be interesting.  Is it going to be similar to Schneider’s Hail Mary, last-ditch in December?

The other bill that screams from that list would be H.R. 121, which provides for the hiring of 200 more ATF agents.  Pay attention, this means more foots soldiers on the ground to “enforce gun laws” (aid in confiscation?).

Also from Texas, we have Representative Al Green [D-TX9] and his attempts to close the “gun show loophole” with:

• H.R. 167: To prohibit the transfer of a firearm at a gun show by a person who is not a federally licensed firearms dealer.

Representative Bobby Rush [D-IL1], a countryman of Representative Schneider from Illinois, introduced:

• H.R. 30: To increase public safety by punishing and deterring firearms trafficking.

What Rush’s bill has in it, has yet to be determined.  At face value, we can say this is a “good thing” however, from what we know about such bills, there are going to be some interesting things attached.  Besides, gun trafficking and straw purchases are already illegal.  So, what’s the aim, to make them double illegal?  Now getting the feds to actually prosecute such cases, that is a whole other matter, they should start with that.

It is not all bad though, we do have a few positive things that are being submitted such as Representative Richard Hudson [R-NC8] bringing back CCW reciprocity:

H.R. 38: To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a means by which nonresidents of a State whose residents may carry concealed firearms may also do so in the State.

And Representative Jeff Duncan’s [R-SC3] push with:

H.R. 95: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to remove silencers from the definition of firearms, and for other purposes.

With only being a few days into the new legislative session, we can expect to see more and more bills introduced which would be infringements of our 2nd Amendment Rights.  We must stay vigilant and aware of what the dear swamp creatures are up to.  Remember to write your legislators and stay involved.  It’s going to be a rocky road, so buckle up!

John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use and NRA certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii .