Nancy Pelosi has a Meltdown when House Republicans Best Her in Anti-Gun Bill

By ngnadmin On Mar 13, 2019 0

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Republicans “xenophobic” last Tuesday because they added a provision to a House bill that would require vendors that conduct background checks to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if a buyer is also an illegal immigrant.

Republicans used a motion to recommit before the House voted on the legislation to allow time for them as the minority party to debate and amend the bill before Speaker Pelosi could call for a vote.

A motion to recommit allowed Republicans a chance to propose the amendment to the bill that requires firearm vendors to report illegal immigrant applying for guns to ICE.

All but three Republicans voted but were joined by only 26 Democrats. The Pelosi led House ultimately voted down this crucial amendment.

Florida Republican Representative Greg Steube introduced the amendment first voted down in February. He said at that time, “Clearly, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee don’t care about preventing gun violence, they simply are playing politics with Americans’ Second Amendment rights. The fact that Democrats do not want law enforcement notified if an individual attempting to purchase a firearm fails a background check is truly troubling. In rejecting this Amendment, the Democrats have shown their true colors. It is clear they are not interested in preventing gun violence or stopping the illegal purchase of firearms, but rather they are only interested in limiting the rights of law-abiding citizens to advance their own political agenda.”

The original Steube Amendment also mandated vendors notify ICE if an illegal immigrant attempted to purchase a firearm.

Steube noted then that Democrats had “shown their true colors” in rejecting the amendment. As the Representative said – Democrats aren’t seeking to find a solution to end school shootings or stop the illegal purchase of firearms. Their only interest is to limit the “rights of law-abiding citizens to advance their own political agenda.”

Gun control advocates have followed this same pattern over the last year. Background checks would have not prevented the school shooting in Parkland, FL, the Pulse Nightclub shooting last year, or the shooter who murdered five women a few weeks ago.

Democrats have done nothing but push for more Federal background checks that don’t prevent mass shootings or criminal use of guns. However, when it comes to illegal immigrants, they refuse to allow ICE to have valuable access to information about illegals seeking to own a gun.

From the beginning, Democrats labeled the amendment as an attempt by Republicans to provide legitimacy to President Trump’s assertions that violent criminals make up a significant part of illegal immigrants crossing our border.

Almost every progressive group that claims it is dedicated to stamping out gun violence has given an exemption to illegal immigrants.

Kevin Solis, a spokesman for the immigrant rights group DREAM Team Los Angeles backed up Democrats by saying, “No amount of gun-control legislation victory can cover up the fact that Republicans in the House are seeking to further criminalize our family members and community through legislation.” He then tied that to a refusal to recognize the contribution of migrants to our country.

Margot Bennet, director of Women Against Violence followed the same tact by saying, on the one hand, her organization is pleased that background checks are “finally getting the attention and action they deserve,” they are glad this amendment failed.

According to Bennet, requiring vendors to notify ICE when an illegal immigrant is given a background check “dangerously perpetuates the myth that immigrants are responsible for gun violence in this country.”

The good news for those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, all Democrats do not agree with the likes of Pelosi. Support for the bill from within the rank and file of Democrat has exposed a growing tension within the party.

Speaker Pelosi and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted their fellow Democrats who voted with Republicans to include the amendment. Ocasio-Cortez added her promise to help challengers unseat them in 2020.

Members of the ‘Blue Dog’ caucus represent districts that are fairly centrist, many of which broke tradition and voted for Trump in 2016.

Nothing the Democrat House has offered prevents gun violence. Instead, it will only restrict the rights of the millions of law-abiding citizens that legally carry a firearm every day.

Thankfully our Republican-led Senate is likely to vote down these baseless efforts.