LaMalfa says Second Amendment shouldn’t be a second-class right
Congressman Doug LaMalfa issued the following statement after opposing two Democrat gun control bills, H.R. 8, and H.R.1446.
“Our Second Amendment rights must be treated with the same fundamental respect as our right to speech, worship, jury trial, to be free from cruel and unusual punishments or search and seizure,” LaMalfa said. “Yet, these gun control bills further erode our rights and push to make firearm ownership a privilege government bestows only if it can find no pretext to deny your right. My constituents sent me to Washington to fight for their rights, not to oversee them gradually surrendered for a mistaken belief that criminals will suddenly begin to follow laws.”
According to the statement from LaMalfa, H.R. 8 — the so-called “universal” background checks turns otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals for simply loaning a firearm to a friend or extended family members. Common firearms transfers would become crimes under this bill, resulting in penalties of up to one year in prison and/or a $100,000 fine.
LaMalfa noted some firearm transfers would become crimes under this bill, including: A friend loans a gun to a domestic violence victim because the victim’s abuser is getting out of jail; a suicidal person asking a trusted friend to take possession of their guns; or a person who loans his cousin a firearm because his house had been burglarized in the past.
“H.R. 1446 turns a constitutional right into a privilege and eliminates the necessary deadlines in the federal background check system. In its place would be a potentially indefinite delay on exercising a constitutional right simply by the inaction of the government. The bill does not merely lengthen time allowed for background checks; it changes a shall-issue system to a may-issue system and gives the FBI discretion to delay firearms purchases indefinitely,” read the statement.
