Washington, D.C. – On the heels of approving massive new restrictions on law enforcement that effectively “defund the police,” the far-left leaders of the House are now pushing additional, unenforceable gun control legislation that will only hurt law abiding citizens and won’t make communities safer, according to Congresswoman Mary Miller.
H.R. 8 is the latest reincarnation of so-called “Universal Background Checks.” All gun purchasers at a retail store must go through a background check. In the case of online purchases, the online vendor sends the person to a licensed firearms dealer to do a background check. Police are present at gun shows to do background checks. The only sales in which a background check does not occur is private sales. In essence, H.R. 8 is nothing more than an attempt to end private sales of firearms.
“The idea that this is going to make us safer is laughable,” Miller said. “Criminals looking to get their hands on firearms to use in crimes are not going to submit to background checks. Only law-abiding citizens will follow the law. This is a back door means of setting up a national registry of firearms – something I completely oppose.”
Miller said a better approach is to make sure law enforcement agencies are working together and sharing information and to make sure they have the tools they need to enforce the gun laws already on the books.
“The problem with gun violence is not that we don’t have enough gun laws,” Miller said. “We have enough gun laws. What we need is to make sure the laws we have are enforced. Look at what happened in 2019 in Aurora when five people were shot and killed. The shooter had moved to Illinois from another state and because his background information was not updated – he was allowed to get a FOID card in Illinois and purchase firearms. Then when he applied for a conceal carry permit, his criminal background was discovered and his FOID card was revoked but his guns were never surrendered as required by law. If the gun laws had been enforced – a terrible tragedy could have been avoided. We need better enforcement – not more laws. Instead of passing terrible legislation like H.R. 8, we need to do a better job of providing law enforcement agencies with the resources they need to enforce existing gun laws.”
