• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About

Radio America Online News Bureau

background checks

What’s Really in the Universal Background Check Bill

March 1, 2019 by GregC

Listen to “What’s Really in the Universal Background Check Bill” on Spreaker.

This week, the House of Representatives passed legislation requiring universal background checks for any gun purchase, but one of the leading defenders of the second amendment says there a whole lot more in the bill than meets the eye.

Universal background checks sound simple.  The idea is that if you want to buy a firearm, you must go through a background check to make sure you don’t have a criminal record or present a threat to those around you.  But Gun Owners of America Legislative Counsel Mike Hammond says there are all sort of transfer provisions that could turn any gun owner into a lawbreaker.

“If you transfer a gun to any other person for as little as a second and you don’t come with an exception, you are a criminal and can be put in prison for up to a year.

“So if you sell your gun to your son for a dollar, you’re a criminal.  If you give your gun to your stepson, you’re a criminal.  If you hand your gun to your neighbor to look at and go into the kitchen for a paper towel, you’re a criminal.  If you go hunting with a friend and hand him your gun and he doesn’t have a hunting license or is a veteran with PTSD, you’re a criminal,” said Hammond.

“It’s simply an effort to make gun ownership so full of trap doors that no one wants to own a gun because every time you handle that gun or hand that gun to someone, you basically risk going to jail,” he added.

Hammond says no mass shooter in 20 years would have been stopped by this legislation.  He says law-abiding Americans are the only ones who get stopped from buying guns with a background check.

“Most people who walk into gun dealers and fail background checks, their overwhelming reaction is absolute surprise.  They’re people like veterans, people who haven’t paid traffic tickets, people whose psychiatrists have turned them in, people who had no idea in the world that the convolutions of federal law would prohibit them from purchasing a firearm.

“The murderers, on the other hand, just get their guns on the street,” said Hammond.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Hammond’s analysis of the House bill, why he thinks the legislation is already dead even before getting to the Senate, and what he thinks Democrats would push for if the universal background check bill ever became law.

Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: background checks, congress, democrats, guns

Crippling Iran Sanctions, Gun Control vs. Facts, Blankenship Won’t Go Away

May 21, 2018 by GregC


Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America cheer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for inflicting punishing sanctions on Iran, making it clear the Trump administration does not think the Iranian regime can be partners on anything. They also sigh as the gun control movement tries to advance its agenda again after the Santa Fe High School shooting, even though their proposed legislation would have done nothing to prevent this horrific shooting. Jim also asks why so few are interested in finding out why teenage boys are now lashing out and killing people when they are bullied or rejected by girls. And they discuss Don Blankenship’s pathetic attempt to keep running for U.S. Senate in West Virginia despite getting thrashed in the GOP primary and a West Virginia law that prevents losers in primaries from running again in the general election.

Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: 2018 midterms, background checks, Don Blankenship, gun control, Iran, Mike Pompeo, National Review, President Trump, sanctions, Santa Fe High School, school shooting, teenage boys, Three Martini Lunch, West Virginia

What ‘Solutions’ Will Stop Mass Shootings?

March 6, 2018 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/3-6-lott-blog.mp3

Gun control activists and a growing number of Republicans insist something must be done to address gun violence but one of the leading researchers on guns says the data prove the gun control proposals getting discussed will not stop future atrocities but ideas getting shouted down by Democrats and the media would make a difference.

More and more Republicans are urging action by Congress, from universal background checks to denying people on the No Fly List from purchasing guns.  Some aren’t even sure what they want but insist something needs to get passed and President Trump needs to lead on the issue.

“You have an obligation to give us a package to consider, regarding school safety and guns.  You did a good job talking in front of the country about the problem,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“Propose something, Mr. President, and I think Republicans have an obligation to work with Democrats to make it law if we can,” added Graham.

Crime Prevention Research Center President Dr. John Lott has studied gun and crime data for decades.  He is not impressed by the generic demand for action.

“I’m very frustrated by this whole debate myself.  What makes me even more frustrated is the fact that the types of solutions that are being offered have really nothing to do with stopping these types of mass public shootings,” said Lott.

Lott then took aim at ideas like expanded background checks and banning so-called assault weapons, explaining why he thinks they would’t work.

“The number one solution that Democrats go to all the time are the background checks on private transfers of guns.  If that type of law had been in effect, it wouldn’t have stopped any mass public shooting this century or even years before that.  And yet they keep pushing it,” said Lott.

He says the statistics on “assault weapons” are also unconvincing.

“To go and ban guns based on how they look really never made much sense to me and there’s a lot of academic research that shows that it had no impact on these types of crimes,” said Lott.

Many conservatives recoiled last week when President Trump seemed warm to ideas ranging from raising the minimum age for purchasing rifles to expanded background checks and possibly even portions of an “assault weapons” ban.

Lott says people need to remember how Trump approaches policy and adds he will not judge Trump until he sees concrete proposals.

“I don’t put too much weight on any one part of the conversation.  I want to see what comes out in the end, but Trump is a very practical person.  You can’t go and argue with him, I don’t believe, just saying this is a right.

“I don’t think that’s the way he thinks about things.  He wants to know what will work, what will stop these types of things,” said Lott.

Lott is very pleased Trump seems to be on board with allowing teachers and staff voluntarily conceal carry on school property.  He also applauds Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., for introducing legislation to repeal the federal gun-free zones.

He says the research shows those zones are magnets for deranged killers.

“I don’t know how somebody can get around it.  You read the diaries, you read the other statements these killers leave, they’re very explicit on why they picked the targets that they do.  Over 98 percent of the mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in places where guns are banned,” said Lott.

Politicians in both parties recoil at the idea of teachers and school staff voluntarily carrying guns, with some preferring armed security instead.  Lott says that’s not nearly as effective.

“Putting somebody in uniform is like putting someone there with a neon sign that says ‘Shoot me first,'” said Lott.  “If it’s concealed (on staff or teachers), the attackers won’t even know who they have to worry about.  It takes away the strategic advantage that these killers have.”

But is there any evidence that arming faculty and staff will work?

“It varies a lot across states but there are 25 states that allow staff and teachers to carry to varying degrees.  There’s never been an attack at one of those schools,” said Lott.

Of course, mass shootings don’t only happen in schools, and Lott says concealed carry is also the best defense of those settings as well.

“We have 17 million Americans in this country who have a concealed carry permit.  They’re at the malls.  They’re at the restaurants, at the movie theaters, at the grocery stores.  You have no clue whether somebody next to you has a concealed carry permit or not.

“If you take out California and New York, over eight percent of the adult population in the rest of the country has a concealed carry permit.  It’s very likely when you’re just going around that there are people there who have a gun.  You’d only know if something bad happened,” said Lott.

Standard Podcast [ 12:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: background checks, concealed carry, guns, John Lott, Lindsey Graham, news, President Trump

Trump Embraces Dem Gun Plans, Hicks Hits the Bricks, Economy Booming

March 1, 2018 by GregC


Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America unload on President Trump for even saying he wants to see most aspects of the Democrats’ gun control agenda in a comprehensive bill and for apparently having little regard for due process rights.  They also discuss the resignation of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and how the West Wing seems to be in a constant state of turnover.  And they close with good economic news, as new reports show wages rising – especially for low-income workers – and that the number of jobless claims filed last week were the fewest since 1969.

Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: assault weapons, background checks, due process, Economy, guns, Hope Hicks, minimum age, National Review, President Trump, Three Martini Lunch, unemployment, wages

Gun Lobby Fires Back

February 28, 2018 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/2-27-hammond-blog.mp3

Gun control activists and members of both parties are rolling out legislation to tighten gun laws, but gun rights groups say those proposals would do nothing but open the door to more gun control efforts.

House Democrats are pushing the most aggressive proposal, calling for a ban on most semi-automatic weapons, specifically if they have detachable magazines or can hold more than ten rounds.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott is asking state lawmakers to raise the minimum age for buying a rifle to 21 years old.  There is a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate that would do the same.  Senate Republicans are also advocating for expanded background checks.

President Trump has, at times, embraced both increasing the minimum age to buy rifles and universal background checks.

But Gun Owners of America Legislative Director Mike Hammond says all of these ideas would fail to address the reasons for mass shootings and only serve to restrict the freedoms of law abiding Americans.

While Democrats and the media often portray semi-automatic weapons as the reason for the high casualty counts at many shootings, Hammond says they are also the weapon of choice for many millions of gun owners.

He says semi-automatics make up a bigger percentage of the 300 million guns in this country than most people realize.

“Of those, there are probably 10 million AR-15’s.  They’re the most popular gun in the country.  I would guess that if you added other semi-automatic rifles like AK-47’s, you’d probably have 20 million of the households.  And if you start adding semi-automatic handguns, who knows where you are?  Fifty million or a hundred million,” said Hammond.

“Basically you’re taking off the market a substantial portion of the guns which are in private hands in the United States,” said Hammond.

Hammond says gun control advocates target semi-automatic weapons because of how they look.

“They are demonized because of cosmetic features that make them look like something else.  Also, they’re demonized by this false narrative that they’re somehow a military rifle.

“I was in the military.  I was issued a fully automatic M-16.  I wouldn’t go into battle with a semi-automatic firearm.  So the exercise is to use fraud in order to ban the most popular gun in America,” said Hammond.

Hammond and his allies are frequently confronted with the question of why anyone would need a semi-automatic firearm.  He says history provides examples, including Korean grocers who protected their stores and their homes above those stores during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“They stood on the roofs of their grocery stores, showing their nasty semi-automatic firearms so anyone who wanted to burn down their store and their home could see it.  As a result of that, they saved their lives, they saved the lives of their families, they saved their homes, they saved their stores,” said Hammond.

As for the bipartisan push for raise the minimum age for buying any firearm to the age of 21, Hammond says it’s just a slick move to advance more gun control legislation.  He says the law, 18 USC 922 (b) (1), only refers to buying guns from a dealer.

“It wouldn’t solve a single thing.  The next day the gun controllers would be back to us, saying, ‘Well, sure they can’t buy semi-autos from dealers, but now we need to ban their purchase from gun shows.  Now we need to ban their purchase on the internet.  Now we need to enact the sort of universal background checks which Congress considered and rejected  in 2013 after Newtown,'” said Hammond.

“What it would do is just open up a whole bunch of trap doors for the gun controllers to come and make a series of successive demands, claiming that what we did accomplished nothing,” said Hammond.

As for universal background checks, Hammond says those are just a way for the government to barge into every gun owner’s life.

“They mean that you can’t buy a gun anywhere in America unless the government approves the sale,” said Hammond.

He says this can take various forms, using the example of rural neighbors.  Under universal background checks, he says those neighbors might have to drive hours to find a gun dealer who can do the background check and charge whatever he wants for performing the service.

In the bigger picture, Hammond fears the government would use that information to build a national gun registry.

“Currently, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is going around in connection with its annual inspections and photographing gun records.  We suspect its making those photographs into the beginnings of a national gun registry.

“If everyone has to sell their guns through a dealer, that means every transaction has one of those gun records.  And that means that everyone is going to be in that universal gun registry,” said Hammond.

Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: background checks, gun control, guns, news, NRA, semi-automatic

Primary Sidebar

Recent

  • Strong April Border Numbers, Cowardly Biden Cabinet Confessions, Pentagon-Airport Hotline Fail
  • Judge Indicted for ICE Stunt, Trump Lifts Syria Sanctions, Clooney & A Clueless Biden
  • More Biden Revelations, Social Security for Illegals? Trump Targets Drug Costs, RFK’s Curious Swim
  • Hamas Releases Last American Hostage, Trump & the Qatari Plane, Media Blame Shifting Over Biden
  • Stories That Need More Coverage: Unsustainable Debt, China’s Ambitions, Persecution of Christians & More

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in