Universal Background Checks Clear Senate Committee

Posted on March 12, 2013 at 5:00 pm by JM Ashby

Good news — the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would institute near-universal background checks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Senate Judiciary Committee approved a Democratic bill Tuesday expanding required federal background checks to nearly all gun purchases, giving President Barack Obama an early victory on curbing gun violence in a fight that still faces difficult odds.

The vote was 10-8, with all Democrats supporting the measure and every Republican opposing it. [...]

The background check measure would expand the requirement to firearms sales between private individuals, such as those that occur at gun shows. Currently, the checks are required only for sales by federally licensed firearms dealers.

I expect this bill or one similar to it will eventually clear the full Senate, but I don’t expect the House of Representatives will act on it any time soon if ever. If we want serious gun control in America, we have to retake the House.

One could say the same for so many things we need to deal with.

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  • GrafZeppelin127

    I made the mistake of writing another Daily Kos diary on the topic, Gun Laws Infringe, but Gun Prices Don’t?, and was treated to a healthy dose of liberal hate in the comment section. This after enduring a couple of rounds of right-wing/gun-nut hate over on HuffPo.

    What struck me was that the “liberal” commenters on DK were actually feeling sorry for the poor, defenseless gun fans who were being victimized by my cruel, unfair and malicious improv act/thought experiment.

    I swear, I cannot fucking take this anymore. The whining, the weeping, the exaggerated self-regard and indignant self-pity, the demands that personal goodness and heroism and virtue be acknowledged and validated, the intense desire to feel victimized and mistreated and put-upon and unfairly accused and insulted. … WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????

    I can’t stand it. It’s sickening. It’s making me physically ill.

    Help….?

    • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

      When I get to feeling like that I take a break from the Intertubes and commune with like minded people and lots of booze until I have gained some sense of balance. Then I go back out and tilt at windmills some more.

      • GrafZeppelin127

        Yea, that’s what I usually do. Except for the booze part; not my thing.

        I wonder, though; why am I reacting so viscerally? Where does this epidemic of masturbatory hero-worship come from, and why does it bother me so much?