Over the last week I have received a ton of emails and phone calls about HR 127. This is understandable, as the bill itself is an extraordinarily egregious abrogation of a slew of our Constitutional rights.

I’ll use this space to go over some of the more “interesting” aspects of it but, in the end, I am not particularly concerned about its passage. Stranger things have happened… but I think it will, ultimately, be political suicide for Congress to even vote on this piece of trash.

Okay… so a bit of background:

HR 127 is a bill introduced by Texas representative, Sheila Jackson Lee. (For those of you considering a move to Texas for an expansion of “freedom”… you might want to avoid Ms. Lee’s district.)

Ms. Lee has never been a strong supporter of the Constitution. She is completely antagonistic toward the idea of firearm ownership. With the majority of the House depleted to the slimmest of majorities, she has decided to either virtue signal (most likely) or put her fellow Democrats at electoral risk for reasons that are inexplicable. Regardless… she has introduced the single most draconian anti-gun bill perhaps ever drafted in our republic.

So what does this little gem purport to do?

Read on, dear patriot!

The first thing would be to establish a firearms registry at the federal level. This would require every firearm currently in existence (regardless of age… yep… this includes great grandpa’s lever-action hanging over the fireplace at the cabin) to be registered with the federal government. This registry would be made available to a variety of “interested groups”… first would be the general public… criminals looking to steal guns could ask the government exactly what house they should hit. (Alternatively… and I am sure Ms. Lee has not considered this…the bad guys might look for homes that don’t have guns.)

The second group that gets access to this “list” is federal, state, and local law enforcement. Okay… this kinda makes sense. If a list is to be kept, it would be assumed that these guys and gals could access it. Then she goes here… “All branches of the United States Armed Forces”…WTF?!?

But wait… there is more!

If you want to possess a gun, you will need to get a license first. (Sorry… no “grandfathering” allowed. Existing owners will also need to get a license.)

Let’s pause for a second for a little sidebar. Can you imagine a proposed law that said before you go to a religious institution, you must first get a license from the federal government?! I mean, why not? If we are going to abrogate one Constitutional right, why not all?

So… about that license. You will need to apply to the Office of the Attorney General of the U.S. and the first thing it is going to do is a criminal background check (okay… that is pretty standard fare). Then it gets “interesting”…

(If you have arrived here from our newsletter continue reading here…)

You will then need to go visit a state-appointed psychologist. Oh… and your family and friends may also have to visit said psychologist. No timetable is established for this little visit, nor the cost… but visit, you will.

If “doc” is okay with you having a gun, you then get the pleasure of paying the government $800 for an insurance policy. (Why $800???… Who knows?!)

Once this is done, you get to go through a 24-hour course on gun safety. If you decide to purchase a “military-style weapon”… (Does that mean one in current use? One that has been used in the last ten years? 100 years? 500 years?) …you get to go through an additional eight hours of training.

Okay… let’s go back to “grandpa’s lever-action”… or muzzleloader, for that matter. You need a special license, and essentially a waiver of your Fourth Amendment rights to allow the state to come into your home to make sure that evil beast is being secured properly.

Of course, we have our specifically enumerated firearms we will not be able to have, and those evil standard capacity magazines?… Done.

Oh… and if you are a retired cop?

F#$k you… you are not exempt either.

Oh… and if you screw this up somehow, or just ignore the law? You will be sent to prison for a minimum of 15 years… enjoy your stay, comrade!

Now… as asinine as this bill is, actually I am not particularly concerned about it. The fact of the matter is during the 90s the anti-gun crowd specifically went after AR-15s because there were few people who owned them. Their idea was incrementalism. This bill goes after everything. And here is the thing… there are a lot of Democrats in blue districts and in blue states who own “something”. It might be a shotgun, a handgun… or even “grandpa’s lever-action”… regardless… they all would have to comply… and they are going to raise holy hell to their Democratic representatives. It is extremely doubtful this piece of garbage would pass the Senate, meaning that anyone in the House who votes for this is going to be targeted by constituents of their own party… let alone the Republicans.

It has done two good things though:

It has eliminated, once and for all, the argument that “they don’t want to take your guns”.

It has provided a massive fundraising opportunity for the NRA, FPC, Second Amendment Foundation, et al.

Nicely done, Ms. Lee… Your utter contempt for the Constitution remains intact.