Harry Reid Employs Sleazy Tactics to Block Pro-gun Rand Paul Amendment

Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- Remember the corrupt tactics used by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass ObamaCare? The secret meetings? The refusal to let the American people see the language?

Well, he’s at it again. This time, Reid is abusing his role as Majority Leader of the Senate to block a pro-gun amendment that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is attempting to add to the so-called Patriot Act.

In order to circumvent Sen. Paul’s efforts to protect gun rights, Reid scuttled the Senate version of the 9/11 extension and instead tacked it onto an unrelated House-passed small business bill. He then employed a procedural scheme to lock out ALL Republican amendments, including Paul’s pro-gun amendment.

As you know, Rand Paul’s amendment would exempt 4473’s (the form all purchasers fill out when they buy a firearm from a licensed dealer) and other gun records from the blanket information demands which Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) can make under the 9/11 legislation.

Without Paul’s exemption, it is possible that the BATFE could go to a secret (FISA) court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a “terrorism investigation” requires it. If such an action were taken, the government would have a list of every gun buyer in the country going back decades.

This is unacceptable and it is a violation of gun owner protections enacted in 1986 as part of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. The McClure-Volkmer Act spells out the purposes for which gun records can be obtained by a law enforcement agency: as part of a bona fide criminal investigation, a trace, or a routine annual inspection. Sen. Paul’s amendment will simply keep the 1986 law’s provisions in place.

It should also be noted that the records in question deal with persons who already underwent the (unconstitutional) background check and were allowed to purchase a firearm. Once again, the dangers of a background check system (which presumes a person is a criminal until proven otherwise) are highlighted, as efforts must constantly be made to keep the government’s hands off the list of honest gun owners.

Sen. Paul’s amendment to protect gun owners would have tremendous support in the Senate, and Reid knows it—which is why he has gone through such great lengths to keep it of the floor. Now is the time to insist that the Paul amendment be allowed to come up for a vote and that gun dealer records be protected

ACTION: Contact your Senators. Tell them to oppose cloture on Harry Reid’s motion to concur until Rand Paul has had an opportunity to offer his amendment to protect gun records.

Click Here to send your Senators a prewritten email.

Gun Owners of America

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Springfield, VA 22151

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Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. GOA sees firearms ownership as a freedom issue. `The only no comprise gun lobby in Washington' – Ron Paul