The Schumer/Bloomberg Wet Dream Act of 2013 has been reported out of its senate committee. I gather the word “poopooheads” was struck from the final amendment, but it remains hostile and draconian. Consensus among those willing to attempt interpretation of this mungheap seems to fall on the side of “letting you hold my rifle while I go over a fence would constitute an illegal transfer.” If you’re a gun owner who’s in any way social about it, prepare to commit multiple obscure federal felonies pretty much daily. It would certainly end the “gun show loophole” good and hard, without ever even mentioning gun shows. I really don’t know where they’d house us all after the mass arrests. Work camps in northern Alaska, maybe.
Let’s just forget I speculated about that last part, okay?
If passed as written and then actually enforced, it would drive all but the extreme-fudd wing of the gun culture completely underground and make us all afraid of one another. That may be the point. It would certainly produce a whole new class of free/illegal market, and couldn’t possibly be enforced without heavy reliance on snitches.
So I will emulate my spiritual leader du jour, Scarlett O’Hara, in the wisdom of her speaking…
“Oh, I can’t think about this now! I’ll go crazy if I do! I’ll think about it tomorrow.” Yeah. That’ll save the world.
Speaking of salvation, I note at some other sites that a lot of conservative-type shooters are actually putting their faith in John Boehner et al to keep it off Obama’s little desk. If that’s the only hope, we are so screwed…
I did read the full text of S.374. It is as bad as you’ve heard. Your “letting you hold my rifle while I go over a fence would constitute an illegal transfer.” example can be true; all it takes is climbing that fence to cross from a no-hunting area into a hunting area. Were you crossing a neighbor’s posted no-hunting property? Bummer. Handing a guy your revolver to try out at your private range could be a felony if said range isn’t within your “curtilage”. It would be a felony if you loaned him that same revolver at his backyard range. Leaving your spare guns with a friend for safe-keeping while you’re traveling or in the hospital? Felony, unless you run a background check through an FFL. Aside from forcing nearly every temporary or permanent transfer to go through an FFL (bound book, 4473s, and all), it also requires new, additional record-keeping of every transfer.
As I already told “my” senators and rep: I will not comply.
No, I don’t believe compliance would be a big priority here at the Secret Lair.
What’s a “curtilage?”
Curtilage is a legal term for your house and immediately adjoining property and buildings. That’s where your privacy rights extend. Curtilage doesn’t extend to your entire property (and generally wouldn’t include outdor ranges that you generally set a bit away from house for safety’s sake), which is why the courts let cops come snooping without warrants.
The fact that Schumer et al used that particular term indicates they are very deliberately setting conditions to narrow lawful “temporary” transfers as much as possible, and set people up for “unintended” violations. Yeah, you and I understand that’s always what they wanted; this just makes it clear to the courts.
Being that [expletive] specific (ditto with the other conditions in the text) tells me this is their minimum demand, and not merely a bargaining position to be “compromised” away. Not that it would, listening to the idiot Republicans (but I repeat myself).
So let me repeat myself again: I will not comply.
We got a call from our gun gal(FFL) today about something unrelated and her sentiment is pretty much “good luck with that crap”. Her husband is a local deputy who says new gun laws cannot/will not be enforced, at least in this part of the country. So I’m still singing my same old “first they have to find me then they have to catch me”.
Meanwhile, I’ll remember that curtilage thing. With the shooting benches 7′ from the house and 1/4 mile inside the no trespassing signs on the property fence, I’m feeling good to go.
“I’m feeling good to go.”
Remember, dear… nothing prevents them from moving the goal posts. You are never going to be “good to go” until all of their fat asses are strung up from the nearest lamp post or tree. In the case of treeless wastelands, some improvisation may be necessary.
Those are wise words Mama Liberty. My only wish is that more people take them to heart. Alas, I know it won’t happen.
“In the case of treeless wastelands, some improvisation may be necessary.”
It took a millisecond or two for “stakes and anthills” to pop into my mind – along with liberal application of jumping cholla – and time to get acquainted with the local fauna.
Send me off to some workcamp in a frozen wasteland – would they! Might as well earn it.