Written by Aidan Johnston Published: 11 March 2022
Congress just passed a law to deputize your local police as ATF agents and to fund criminal investigations into mistaken NICS denials of law-abiding citizens.
Biden is set to sign the law before midnight.
What just happened?
On Wednesday at 1:30 AM, the House of Representatives dropped a 2,700+ page, $1.5+ trillion spending bill containing the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act (VAWA) and the NICS Denial Notification Act—both of which included gun control.
GOA analyzed the bill and got two action alerts out to the grassroots, but congressional leaders had already struck the anti-gun deal.
By Wednesday night, gun control had passed the House of Representatives with the support of Democrats and 39 GOP representatives.
By Thursday night, gun control passed the Senate with the support of all Democrat Senators present and 18 Republicans. Sadly, the bill could have been stopped entirely had Republicans opposed the bill in unison, because anti-gunners were short a Senator.
Why did this happen?
GOA fought against the passage of gun control through the Violence Against Women Act since it was first proposed in 2019.
GOA’s members and grassroots activists iterated their opposition to these gun controls over the years, but a recent deal by Democrats and 11 anti-gun GOP put VAWA on the verge of passing.
When negotiations for an appropriations omnibus were suddenly realized, party leadership saw a way to pass the controversial legislation without all the difficulty of debate and a clean vote.
So instead, VAWA was tossed into the massive “must-pass” omnibus government funding bill.
Leaders of both parties routinely abuse the appropriations process, forcing massive bills through Congress in a matter of hours. In this case, it took less than 48 hours.
What just passed?
Because of three years of constant grassroots opposition, four gun control sections were removed from VAWA:
- Sections 101 and 102: grant funding programs to train police to executive “red flag” gun confiscation orders.
- Section 801: an expansion of the Lautenberg Misdemeanor Gun Ban (a.k.a. Biden’s “Boyfriend Loophole”).
- Section 802: funding to turn state-level stalking laws into “red flag” gun confiscation laws.
Alas, for all the horrible gun control removed from the bill, some gun control remained:
- Sections 1101-1102: the NICS Denial Notification Act to launch criminal investigations into firearm transfer background check denials—even though 9 out of 10 times the system falsely denies a law-abiding citizen.
- Section 1103: funding for ATF to deputize local police to enforce federal gun laws, especially to undermine Second Amendment Protection Act (SAPA) states.
Who is responsible?
As it turns out, leadership and anti-gun Republicans fought hard to maintain these gun control provisions in the final bill.
These eighteen Republican senators voted with anti-gun Democrats in favor of the gun control’s final passage:
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Capito (R-WV)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Ernst (R-IA)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Portman (R-OH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)
These Senators believe they were given political “cover” as other ostensibly “pro-gun” groups backed the compromise by refusing to publicly oppose the language.
Anyone engaged in Second Amendment politics that is not talking about the gun control in the government funding bill knows exactly what just happened and is fully complicit in its passage.
Gun owners need to speak out and demand accountability!
On the other hand, 31 senators fought alongside GOA and voted against the bill—so if these pro-gun senators represent you, then our alert will send them a thank you.
Thank you for fighting alongside Gun Owners of America against these gun controls.
