Do we honestly believe States will put this money to good use? I think not.
Increases funding for mental health programs and school security
This money is directed to a series of programs, many of which already exist but would be funded more robustly under the new law. It doesn’t say that this money will augment, or be added to existing programs, so states may defund whatever they currently have, stick it in the general revenue fund, and replace it with the money coming from “Uncle Sugar” in DC. This is how the states sold the Lottery to us. They promised the money would go to “education” making people believe it would be a top-line add to that funding, instead they took money out of education to spend on other things and just replaced it with Lotto dollars.
The Boyfriend loophole
- Living with their partner
- Married to their partner
- Have a child with their partner
Ask yourself the question, “Is this going to really reduce violent gun crime or school shootings?”
More thorough reviews of people ages 18-21 who want to buy guns
Facepalm.
The bill encourages states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System(NICS). Encouraging is not the same as doing it. The states need to pay people to sit in front of computers and enter this data into NICS. The federal government needs to do that too for the crimes it convicts people of. So does the military. The current system is a leaking sieve of missing information that is letting people buy guns who have serious crimes in their records.
The Feds also need to prosecute felons who try to buy guns, because it’s a crime for them to even walk into a gun store and fill out that form.
How many 0f the school shootings would have been prevented by this law? My guess is zero-based on most of the shooters not having previous convictions, they did all suffer from mental health issues that were not being diagnosed, not being treated, and not being reported.
And this may not even be allowed legally. To require two different background check criteria based on age, may end up being unconstitutional. Take out the age requirement here for enhanced checks that take up to 10 days and replace it with a racial one where blacks or Hispanics have to submit to a more extensive check and you see the problem.
Creates new federal statutes against gun trafficking and straw purchase trafficking
The legislation helps law enforcement to go after people who buy guns for those who are not allowed to purchase firearms.
Again, criminals don’t care and this does nothing to address the issue of keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, a major cause of mass shootings.
Summary
I could develop a more meaningful bill with a classroom of 5th graders.
These two measures below would go a long way to preventing what I believe we can all agree on are the major issues we are trying to address in this country of mentally unstable people using guns in mass shootings and violent gun crime in urban settings like east New York, south-central Los Angeles, and the south side of Chicago.
- Mental health records need to be a part of the check to own a gun. Right now, 64% of jail inmates, 54% of state prisoners and 45% of federal prisoners are being treated for mental illness. So we can say mentally ill people are getting treatment, but they are getting it in prison AFTER their mental illness results in them harming someone. It shouldn’t work that way.
- Enforce long prison sentences for anyone using a firearm to break the law. Florida has a 10-20-Life system where using a gun in a crime gets you ten years, discharging it gets you 20 years, and killing someone gets you life in prison. There is no money in this bill to expand prison beds for criminals who use firearms in crimes.
So here we are again with more “lipstick on a hog” gun laws that will do very little to address the current situation other than allowing career politicians to feel good about themselves on tv or when they are schmoozing with the Hollywood elite.
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