Dear Elected Official: April 30, 2013
I am a long-time liberal Democrat. During the last national election, I donated $500 to Democratic candidates for the Presidency and US Senate. I am one of the 90 percent who, in the wake of the Gabby Gifford, Colorado and Newtown shootings, have expressed my support for strict background checks for the sale of firearms.
However, my future support for any Democrat candidate is in danger, because of two things. The votes of Democrats for the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, and the dishonesty being shown by Democrats in representing that such a large percentage of the American population is in agreement with the provisions of that Amendment. Every day, I receive dozens of solicitations for Democrat causes, but I am not responding to any of them until Congress, and the President, get their act together and put forward, and pass, a background check bill without a poison pill in it.
I applaud and strongly support the Senators who voted recently AGAINST the Manchin-Toomey Amendment that would have imposed onerous conditions on those who might wish to sell or purchase a firearm. I firmly believe that the majority of the 80 million or so gun owners in the US agree with me on supporting the concept of instant background checks and yet opposing the specific provisions of the Manchin-Toomey Amendment.
Specifically, the provisions of Section 122 of the Amendment, which require all sales of firearms to go through a licensed dealer, with severe penalties for violations of that requirement, would be so burdensome as to constitute an “infringement” on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
As a liberal lawyer and retired US Army officer, I have a special appreciation for the balance that the Second Amendment creates in our society. It insures that our military will always be under the control of elected civilian officials. Most members of the military understand this. This chain of command structure is critically important to the stability our country has enjoyed for over 200 years. Any effort to weaken Second Amendment protections for an armed civilian population endangers that structure.
For years, there has supposed to have been in place, a “instant background check system” whereby the seller of a weapon can quickly determine whether the intended buyer of the weapon is on the list of those prohibited from that purchase. It has not worked well, not only because of the loophole for private sales, but also because essential information has not been provided to the database.
The information to perform that check should be accessible online, to any potential individual seller, even if he or she is NOT a licensed dealer, without a great deal of hassle. The potential seller should be able to log onto a government web site, enter the potential buyer’s name and Social Security number, and get back a quick response saying either “OK to sell to this person” or NOT OK to sell to this person.” The seller could print out that report, and keep it for his records. That is the background check I support.
I also believe that the requirement for a seller of firearms, in numbers greater than an occasional and de-minimus number, should require that seller to have a Federal Firearms Dealer license. Sellers should not be able to skate around the responsibility that is required of licensed dealers, and buy and sell large numbers of firearms, simply by claiming to be private collectors.
Michael F. Chenoweth
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired
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