Senator Grassley Defends Constitution on NPR

I heard Senator Charles Grassley on the Weekend Edition Sunday show of National Public Radio. I expected that he would buckle, and at least leave the door open for "universal background checks" as a way to appease the statists and move us toward universal gun registration. I was wrong.

Senator Grassley surprised me by standing up to the MSM bullies. He did not say "we have to do *something*". He did not say *for the children*. He was smart. He did not fall for their implied assumptions that more unconstitutional infringements mean more safety.

He was willing to look at making sure that felons who attempted to purchase guns illegally in the current system, were forwarded to the FBI for prosecution. This was an indirect and effective way to say that we are not even using the system we have, so why make an even bigger system to do less? If pushed, he could have mentioned that there were only 77 prosecutions out of 72,000 background check denials in 2009, and they resulted in only 32 convictions.

He was willing to look at ways to get more information on people with mental problems into the FBI database, but worried about privacy concerns.

He was not willing to support "universal background checks". He addressed the intrusive nature of such a system by mentioning that he could not support requiring a father to submit to a background check to give a rifle to his son. He mentioned that background checks would be ineffective, because they would not stop the theft of firearms, as happened in Newtown. Lastly, he said that we have to treat the Second Amendment with as much care as we treat the First Amendment. He said that we would like to put limits on violent movies, but even though we know they have an effect on young people, we do not, because of the First Amendment, and we have to treat the Second Amendment with the same level of respect.

This was brilliant. He also stated that he could not support an assault weapon ban, because we already tried that, and it did not work from 1994 to 2004.

I was and am impressed. It was gratifying to see a senator stand up to the MSM. It was doubly impressive because he is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Link to NPR audio

Link to Source with Background Check numbers

Dean Weingarten