Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) explained on Wednesday that he could not support national reciprocity because House Leadership added the gun control expansions of “Fix-NICS” to it.
“Fix-NICS” is a measure Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and John Cornyn (R-TX) support. It responds to the Air Force’s failure to report Devin Kelley’s criminal history by expanding the number of people who will be barred from gun possession going forward.
When Feinstein, Murphy, Blumenthal, and Cornyn introduced the bill, Murphy tweeted that it was the best piece of gun legislation since Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) post-Sandy Hook gun control bill:
Because of Fix-NICS, Gohmert said he could not vote for national reciprocity. He explained, “The House Leadership has combined that good bill, to provide concealed carry reciprocity, with [Fix-NICS,] … a bill that prevents more people from getting guns.”
Gohmert went on to point out that “92 percent” of the failures to pass a background check turn out to be “false-positives.” This means the person denied a gun ought not to have been denied in more than nine out of ten instances. He stressed that increasing the number of prohibited purchasers, as Fix-NICS would do, will only expand the number of innocents represented by the 92 percent unjustly denied a gun purchase in the first place.
On December 6, Breitbart News reported:
The “Fix-NICS” gun control House Leadership plans to piggyback on national reciprocity runs the risk of putting bureaucrats between Americans and their guns once more. Gun Owners of America reports that “Fix-NICS would require that the rolls of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and ObamaCare be trolled for recipients with PTSD, ADHD, or Alzheimer’s — that is, people who have had guardians appointed.”
Fix-NICS is a bill that should be considered separately where it can be supported or rejected on its own merit, instead of sneaked through while Americans are thinking about reciprocity being corrected.
Gohmert supports national reciprocity, but he does not support the gun control contained in the Feinstein/Cornyn Fix-NICS bill.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.