Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Monday that he believes all commercial gun sales should be subject to a background check (we do that) and signaled he’s open to supporting bipartisan legislation from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He hasn’t read it yet, however.

“It [background checks] certainly should be applied to commercial sales and finding a more comprehensive way to make sure that people are in the system that ought to be in the system,” Romney told reporters when asked about expanding background checks.

When he was asked if he’d support the Manchin-Toomey bill, he said:

“I’m looking at that. … Directionally, that is something I would support, but I have not read the legislation. That is something I would have to look at before I signed on,” Romney added.

Only two Republicans voted for the bill last go-around, Susan Collins and Pat Toomey, two barely Republican politicians.

Most viewed the bill as a Trojan Horse.

Nancy Pelosi said she won’t settle for less than universal background checks and there will “be hell to pay” if it doesn’t happen. Pelosi uses her best manipulative adjectives in the clip below.

#NEW: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warns Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Democrats will not take “no” for an answer on universal background checks, adding the Republican party “will have hell to pay” if legislation doesn’t pass the Senate. #OANN pic.twitter.com/uJxYYLq4sJ — Jennifer Franco (@jennfranconews) September 9, 2019

THE TOOMEY-MANCHIN BILL

The Toomey-Manchin gun bill seeks to build on and expand background checks of gun sales at gun shows/events using the National Instant Criminal Background Check. (All gun shows and events must do background checks now.)

The authors allege it does not expand the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. However, the ATF and state governments will now have cause to step up “investigations” of legal gun owners.

The data mining from this bill will set up the framework for a potential national registry.

The bill has a severability clause – if one part of the bill fails, it does not affect the rest of the bill. It establishes a record-keeping system which will be available to the NCIS in four years. It makes arrest and conviction records, court orders, and mental health adjudications or commitments available to Federal and State record repositories. It is intended to be kept in real-time, a costly and near-impossible undertaking which could easily be misused. There is a clause that offers protections for veterans by stating that their honorable discharge or decoration can be considered in a mental competency disposition. It includes due process. Transport of weapons is specified to the extreme with government overseers and tight regulations. The measures do not establish a national registry and it is intended to keep guns out of the hands of the severely mentally ill and criminals. However, there is a dangerous exception which allows the DOJ to pass any regulations he wants: (4)(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, except for section 923(m), the Attorney General may implement this subsection with regulations. The bill proposes a study to determine whether medical doctors and other mental health professionals have the ability, without negative legal or professional consequences, to notify law enforcement officials when a patient is a danger to himself or others. This would be done without due process and would require the patient to go through difficult bureaucratic procedures to get his/her gun rights back. Due process is ignored under this clause.