Highlights from Moore's remarks: “I really think this is a hill we’re going to have to die on as Republicans. The Second Amendment, to me, protects all other rights. As we start talking about these slippery slopes, y’all remember just a few years ago it was just two weeks to flatten the curve. It concerns me going forward exactly how this thing is going to play out. “Senator Cornyn said himself that this is ‘a step in the right direction.' My question to the senators is: what’s the next step? It’s never enough. I think [Rep. Dan Bishop] hit on this. They use tragedies in our society to come after our rights. Without the Second Amendment, your rights are not protected as press, there are so many rights that we cannot protect. “Thomas Jefferson said, when people fear the government there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people, there is liberty. We have a responsibility. My job, these members jobs, are to protect liberty. It's not to play politics, it is to protect your liberty. You make the decision to protect your home, to arm yourself. That's your right. It's guaranteed in the constitution, and it's our right to fight for that. And so I'm just honored to be a part of this process. “This is not a gun issue in America. I went to school at Enterprise High School. We had guns in every rack there. It's a heart issue in America. When you tell young people, and we protest the right to kill a baby in the mother's womb and sell the body parts, and then go wonder why there's no value in life in young Americans, it's because we're teaching that to our children. And because of that, they do not value life, and therefore we have unmitigated murders in gun free zones.” Senate Gun Control Act: In an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights, this legislation takes the wrong approach in attempting to curb violent crimes. The bill throws emergency supplemental federal spending at states to encourage implementation of red flag laws and dramatically increases funding for numerous other grant programs, but the bill’s vague language contains insufficient guardrails to ensure that the money is actually going towards keeping guns out of the hands of criminals or preventing mass violence. House Republicans are committed to identifying and solving the root causes of violent crimes, but doing so must not infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. - The Senate Gun Control bill provides $750 million over five years in federal Byrne JAG grant funding to states for crisis intervention proceedings, including state-level red flag programs. However, the bill fails to provide explicit due process requirements and defers to state and federal courts to determine whether the red flag program prevents infringement of the U.S. Constitution.
- The bill makes substantial changes to the Byrne JAG program that have not received sufficient scrutiny.
- It dilutes the criminal justice focus of the program by adding “civil proceedings” as a new purpose for grant funding, which could allow funds to be diverted away from supporting law enforcement.
- Transforms law-abiding citizens under the age of 21 into second class citizens by creating a de facto waiting period of up to ten business days for legal, law-abiding firearm purchases and the consideration of whether an adult firearm purchaser’s juvenile record should prohibit the buyer from purchasing a firearm.
- Later today, the House will vote on the bipartisan H.R. 7666, Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, which already contains the bulk of the mental health care provisions included in the Senate bill, without infringing on 2nd amendment rights.
- The Senate bill provides $4.64 billion in emergency appropriations, including $1.6 billion for the Department of Justice, $990 million for the Department of Health and Human Services, and $2.05 billion for the Department of Education.
- Much of this funding is provided as advance appropriations, meaning it automatically becomes available for spending in future years without meaningful restrictions to ensure grant money is used for its intended purpose.
- Funds are provided for programs unrelated to school safety or preventing mass shootings.
- Many existing and new programs, many of which are unproven, would receive dramatically more funding in this bill than their annual appropriations, creating a risk of waste, fraud, and abuse.
- The bill’s spending is offset by a budget gimmick that generates “savings” by delaying the Trump Administration’s rebate rule for Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) by one year.
|
