----
Lawmaker wants feds to harass small gun sellers out of business
// Personal Liberty Digest™
As part of a reoccurring narrative from frustrated Democrats whose attacks on firearm ownership are thwarted by the Constitution, Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer is urging supporters to help him attack the men and women whose livelihoods depend on firearm sales.
Beyer, it seems, is upset that the Virginia General Assembly has affirmed the legal right of gun stores to help Americans practice their 2nd Amendment rights after it refused to allow local governments to harass the owners of firearm businesses.
In a recent op-ed on ARLnow, the lawmaker wrote: "The arrival of two new gun stores in Northern Virginia in close proximity to families and schools set off a wave of concern from constituents."
Unfortunately, the lawmaker lamented, the irrational panic of anti-firearm activists just isn't yet powerful enough to eliminate Americans' constitutional right to bear arms. Worse yet, he noted, is that lawmakers in Virginia have generally supported residents' constitutional rights to bear arms at the state level.
This Beyer explained, makes it nearly impossible to shut down law-abiding business owners who sell firearms.
"Thanks to Virginia's Dillon Rule, state control preempts local authority. In these cases, it means Arlington and Fairfax Counties cannot prohibit these stores from opening, regardless of the overwhelming will of local families and schools," he wrote. "The power to stop this from happening rests with a gun-friendly General Assembly, which has refused to help, despite the efforts of Northern Virginia's delegation in Richmond."
The lawmaker said that he would like to be able to do more at the federal level to kill the small businesses— but he lamented that recent congressional actions make it difficult to get the Feds involved.
That's why Beyers has introduced legislation that would expand the power of the federal government to harass law-abiding gun sellers, hopefully causing enough hassle that jumpy residents in places like Northern Virginia will soon see those type of small business owners forced to shut down.
I'll let him explain:
Yesterday I introduced a bill, the ATF Enforcement Act, to undo … restrictions on the ATF's enforcement authority. The bill would also remove the requirement that the ATF's Director be confirmed by the Senate. Since 2006 lawmakers backed by the gun lobby have refused to confirm the nominees of both Democratic and Republican presidents. Only one Director has been confirmed in the last decade.
My bill would repeal these restrictions on the ATF and let them do their job of inspecting gun dealers and preventing criminals and people who are legally barred from owning guns from acquiring them.
It is not the role of the federal government to intervene in local zoning, but we can at least make sure that the federal entity charged with regulating the sale of guns is able to do so properly, without the insidious roadblocks which Congress has put in their way.
This is all really amusing, but it gets even better…
The lawmaker flatly admits that his scheme to give ATF agents more authority to harass the owners of upstanding businesses only because they sell firearms "will not solve the problem of gun violence…"
We know that. Because anyone who has ever shopped at a reputable gun store realizes that the men and women who make their livings selling firearms truly are the first line of defense against scumbags getting guns.
They run background checks and they report suspicious activity. Part of the reason they're so careful is because these small business owners are upstanding people who believe in the importance of flexing 2nd Amendment rights responsibly. Another reason is because selling a gun that turns up at a crime scene has the potential to ruin their businesses, and possibly their lives, if investigators find the weapon was sold illegally.
Guess which federal agency didn't have to worry about any of that when guns it dispensed were found near the lifeless body of an American Border Patrol agent a few years back? I'll give you a hint: It's the one Rep. Beyers believes is worthy of less oversight and more power.
Again… Unbelievable.
The post Lawmaker wants feds to harass small gun sellers out of business appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
----
Shared via my feedly reader
