Categories: Featured News

NRA Freaks Out After Obama Moves To Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Convicted Felons

As expected, the National Rifle Association freaked out today after the Obama administration announced that they are going “to keep the most dangerous firearms out of the wrong hands and ban almost all re-imports of military surplus firearms to private entities.”

“Requiring background checks for corporations and trusts does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals,” NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam said in a statement released on Buzzfeed. “Prohibiting the re-importation of firearms into the U.S. that were manufactured 50 or more years ago does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.”

He huffed and he puffed, “This administration should get serious about prosecuting violent criminals who misuse guns and stop focusing its efforts on law-abiding gun owners.”

Yeah, wow. Sure sounds like Obama is tyrant of the highest order. Obama is taking aim at law-abiding gun owners — if by “law-abiding gun owners” you mean convicted felons and domestic abusers, which may be the same thing in Republican world.

The ATF rule would require those who register a gun to a corporation to undergo a background check, thereby closing a loophole that permits convicted felons, domestic abusers and others who are not supposed to own guns to buy them.

This loophole rule applies to convicted felons and domestic abusers. So Arulanandam is saying that the NRA does not support helping the ATF (law enforcement, by the way) keep the most dangerous weapons, like machine guns and short-barreled shotguns, out of the hands of convicted felons and domestic abusers — also known as people who are not allowed to own dangerous weapons for a reason.

Some facts:

• Current law places special restrictions on many of the most dangerous weapons, such as machine guns and short-barreled shotguns. These weapons must be registered, and in order to lawfully possess them, a prospective buyer must undergo a fingerprint-based background check.

• However, felons, domestic abusers, and others prohibited from having guns can easily evade the required background check and gain access to machine guns or other particularly dangerous weapons by registering the weapon to a trust or corporation. At present, when the weapon is registered to a trust or corporation, no background check is run. ATF reports that last year alone, it received more than 39,000 requests for transfers of these restricted firearms to trusts or corporations.

• Today, ATF is issuing a new proposed regulation to close this loophole. The proposed rule requires individuals associated with trusts or corporations that acquire these types of weapons to undergo background checks, just as these individuals would if the weapons were registered to them individually. By closing this loophole, the regulation will ensure that machine guns and other particularly dangerous weapons do not end up in the wrong hands.

The tyrannical Obama administration is not only trying to keep convicted felons from weapons of mass destruction, they are also banning almost all re-imports of military surplus firearms to private entities. This will help (nothing will solve, this is a matter of degree) keep military-grade firearms out of classrooms. Oh my god. He is so mean. Every private citizen who isn’t trained to use them needs military surplus firearms, because — OBAMA.

The NRA has had plenty of time to prepare for the Worst Thing in the World; aka, a modicum of responsibility for gun owners, who are really only free if they are allowed to do whatever they want with no oversight (whereas women are not free to exercise their Constitutional freedom because these same conservatives find some constitutional freedoms to be worthless).

The Obama administration announced what they were going to do on January 16, 2013. They told us then that they would act as they far as they could without Congress, by using 23 executive actions. Twenty-two of them have already been implemented. Today they followed up by closing another loophole.

In NRA/Republican speak, keeping weapons out of convicted felons hands = focusing on “law-abiding gun owners”. Keeping it mainstream, NRA.

Follow Me
Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here. Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump. Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.

Recent Posts

Trump And House GOP’s Promise To Not Cut Social Security Is Total Nonsense

Trump got House Republicans to not use reconciliation to cut Social Security. The problem is…

6 days ago

Trump And Mike Johnson Agree To Apparently Cut Americans’ Healthcare To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich

President-elect Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson have agreed to a deal that would fund the…

6 days ago

Dozens Of Republicans Humiliate Trump/Musk By Voting Down CR

Donald Trump demanded that the debt limit be raised as part of the government funding…

1 week ago

Trump And Vance Blame Biden For Elon Musk Caused Chaos

Donald Trump and JD Vance are blaming President Biden for the havoc caused by Elon…

1 week ago

House Republicans Are Falling Apart And Now Mike Johnson Could Be Toast

The first little bit of pressure involving passing a bill to keep the government open…

1 week ago

Elon Musk Melts Down As House Republicans Show Him That He Has No Power

X boss Elon Musk is throwing a tantrum on his social media platform as House…

1 week ago