On Monday a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas) that would end the current policy that requires gun dealers to report information about the race and ethnicity of people who buy firearms.

The Freedom From Intrusive Regulatory Enforcement of Arbitrary Registration Mandates (FIREARM) Act would block the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from collecting racial data for gun transactions. The bill was originally introduced in the last congress by Rep. Black but did not go anywhere. Supporters of the bill are hopeful the legislation will have better luck in a congress controlled by Republicans.

The bill is only two pages long and does not mince words. The opening states:

A Bill to prohibit the Federal Government from requiring race or ethnicity to be disclosed in connection with the transfer of a firearm.

The requirement to document race and ethnicity is a fairly new change. The Hill reports how these changes came about and the penalties that could be levied for non-compliance.

The ATF made changes to Form 4473 in 2012, requiring gun dealers to submit information about the race and ethnicity of their customers. Gun dealers that fail to comply with the new requirements could face penalties from the ATF, the lawmakers say. Sen. Roy Blunt last fall criticized the controversial policy in a letter to then ATF Director Todd Jones and asked whether the information about a person’s race has ever been used to block someone from purchasing a gun. “The constitutional right of a citizen to own a firearm has nothing to do with race or ethnicity,” Blunt wrote at the time. “It is disconcerting that the U.S. government is gathering this type of data on citizens when there is no connection between purchasing a firearm and an individual’s race or ethnicity.”

The FIREARM Act is a breath of fresh air. It’s hard to imagine anyone openly criticizing this bill, but proponents for government surveillance programs are probably moving behind the scenes to prevent this legislation from gaining steam and coming to a vote.

Government is full of people who cry out for political correctness and many of these same people support the requirement to disclose race to buy a gun. They may not openly support mandating documentation of race for all gun buys, but you won’t see people on politically correct cable news shows campaigning for this bill to become law. These PC policemen either do not see the blatant hypocrisy in their ways or they believe the documenting of race is another essential tool to be used by the surveillance state and is a necessary evil utilized to keep the public “safe.”

Sane individuals understand that it is racist to force individuals to document their race in order to buy a gun, not to mention unconstitutional as well. If this information is provided by individuals voluntarily, then that’s a different story. For example, if a gun dealer were to require customers to provide their race in order to purchase firearms, then customers would have the option of taking their business elsewhere. When a coercivegovernment mandates this behavior, then it can only be defined as institutionalized racism.

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