Gun disability relief funding ban could be challenged in spending bill

Republicans could challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer's obstacle to funding the firearms disabilities relief program, if they wanted to.

Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for City Harvest

House and Senate negotiators are nearing a $1.1 trillion spending deal to avert a government shutdown, Politico reported Sunday. Their goal is to file the measure today and bring it to a floor vote by Thursday, when the current funding stops.
Gun Owners of America warned against doing exactly what the Republican leadership is planning in a November 17 alert. Rather than effectively giving current seated Democrats the power to shape the agenda through to next September, GOA instead called on members to generate pressure for a short term continuing resolution, a measure that would keep the government going until the new majority was seated.
It appears that call went unheeded, and the GOP is set to cede much of the control it was elected to exert. That this will work against the interests of those who put them in power, particularly against gun owners, is elaborated on in the GOA alert.
Noting it was largely due to the gun rights vote that Republicans captured the Senate and widened their lead in the House, what will change as a result, if anything, is unclear. If restrictions remain unchallenged, it will recall the many times rules objectionable to gun owners have quietly been allowed to remain in place. Still, there is one change that could be insisted on now, and if it derailed the spending approval process either in a Harry Reid-controlled Senate, or if Barack Obama rejected it, that decision would fall squarely on the Democrats: Congress could, if it wanted to, restore funding to allow for relief of firearms disabilities -- or at least it could after January if it passed a short term resolution and left the long term bill for the incoming majority.
Per the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “prohibited persons” convicted of state-level offenses can contact their state attorney general to learn their options for civil rights restoration. Federal offenses currently require a presidential pardon, with other lawful options provided for in the Gun Control Act of 1968 closed off due to an appropriations technicality, once implemented due to maneuvering by Sen. Charles Schumer.


“The bill continues anti-gun boilerplate such as the Senator Schumer amendment defunding the McClure-Volkmer disabilities relief program,” GOA warned in January, the last time an appropriations bill was sent to the president. “This means that thousands upon thousands of Americans who are disqualified from owning firearms because of non-violent federal felonies have no way to get their gun rights back.”
Assuming the “Cromnibus” bill will not be stopped, eliminating that “boilerplate” would be the first of many steps Republicans could take to actually earn the trust they have been tentatively extended. If it remains, and if an amendment is not even offered or debated on, gun owners will have a fair indication of what they can continue to expect after January.

http://www.examiner.com/article/gun-disability-relief-funding-ban-could-be-challenged-spending-bill?CID=examiner_alerts_article