Internet Scofflaw

A quick note about the Manchin-Toomey gun-control bill that failed today: David Kopel explains that while the bill purports to forbid a gun registry, it actually authorizes one, and that, and while the bill purports to strengthen interstate transport protection, it actually eviscerates it. (UPDATE: Much more here.) Others have pointed out that, despite purporting not to do so, the bill’s vagueness and arbitrariness effectively require background checks for all private sales.

Are those interpretations correct? There is one thing on which you may depend: If the bill had passed (or if it still yet passes), the people who are complaining today about the supposed lies against the bill are the very same people who will be calling for the courts to adopt that strongly anti-gun interpretation.

This is why there is no such thing as moderate gun control. Whatever the bill is supposed to say, indeed whatever it does say, bears no resemblance to how it will look once Obama’s regulation-drafters and solicitors are through with it. And they know it. That’s the whole point.

UPDATE: It’s also worth noting the the anti-gun forces have been lying every single day since the Sandy Hook attack, such as alleging that a “fully automatic rifle” was used at Sandy Hook, calling semi-automatic rifles “weapons of war”, and by claiming that 40% of gun sales lack background checks.