August 9, 2019: Trump Might Require Universal Background Checks - If the NRA Gives Permission

 

8/9/19: President Trump and “Massacre Mitch” are daintily considering legislation to require universal background checks for gun purchasers. It all depends on if the N.R.A. will grant permission. 

The N.R.A. normally argues that the solution to gun violence is guns for everyone, from teachers to preachers to ticket takers at theaters. But Wayne LaPierre, who heads up the organization, is almost too busy tending to his own guns and ammo to put up a fight. The N.R.A.is riven. Members are quitting. Those remaining are wondering why the organization was thinking about buying Wayne and his wife Susan a 10,000-square foot mansion in a gated golfing community. 

With a lake view! 

That deal fell through when reporters sniffed out Mr. and Mrs. LaPierre’s trail. As part of the deal, it was revealed that the couple hoped to keep the previous owner’s “golf cart if possible.” Mrs. LaPierre was thinking about renovations. She noticed a lack of space in the men’s walk-in closet off the master bedroom. Wayne needs space. That may have to do with the fact leaked documents show he spent more than $274,000 at one high-end Beverly Hills clothing store.

 

Mr. LaPierre has insisted he needs that house for security reasons. He said he feared being “targeted” after the Parkland, Florida massacre. That was just one of dozens of times he had insisted guns weren’t the problem – and the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun was a good guy with a gun. Or a good guy with a $6 million mansion, in a gated community, where he could hide out.  

Whether he and the missus got the house or not, he planned to struggle along on a salary of $1,370,000 per year.

 

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THIS LATEST ROUND of debate over guns and gun legislation, bloodbaths and assault rifles, and countless deaths and injuries, made this blogger go back and check the U.S. Constitution. 

Ratified in 1789, without a Bill of Rights, Article I listed the duties of Congress. 

Including:

So, the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power to regulate arming of the militia. The Second Amendment did not then exist. 

That amendment, adopted as part of the great Bill of Rights in 1791, reads as follows:

 

____________________ 

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” 

The Bill of Rights

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Both the original Constitution and the Second Amendment assume the militia will be “well-regulated.” The Founding Fathers vested the power to regulate the arming of that militia in Congress from the start. 

In other words, if “Massacre Mitch” and President “I’m the Real Victim” had a modicum of courage, they could start regulating guns with at least as much fervor as the GOP shows in regulating uteruses.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (9/18/21): Two years later, we know. The remainder of President Trump’s term passed without any action on the question of guns.