Florida Alert! Universal Background Checks, a Path to Gun Confiscation

HB 135 – Transfers of Firearms by Rep. Margaret Good (D) prohibits the TRANSFER of a firearm from one law-abiding citizen to another without first having a background check performed by a licensed firearms dealer.  

Transfer means sale, giving, lending, renting, or simply handing a firearm to another person or any action that causes a firearm to be transferred from one law-abiding person to another law-abiding person.  

In other words, you must go to a licensed firearms dealer to have a background check done on your best friend just to lend him a hunting rifle to go on a hunting trip. You must also pay the dealer an administrative fee PLUS the background check fee charged by FDLE.
 
Then, before your best friend can return the firearm to you, you must go back to the dealer and the dealer must do a background check on YOU to simply give you back your own gun — AND pay another set of fees. 

The bill also contains a “head-fake.”  Right up front, is a definition:  “Adult family member means an individual’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, niece, nephew, first cousin, aunt, or uncle who is over 21 years of age.”  

As must have been anticipated, many folks wrongfully think there is an exemption that allows you to lend or otherwise transfer a firearm to “an adult family member.”  A careful reading of the bill shows that the exemption ONLY applies if that person LIVES WITH YOU and the transfer is for NO MORE THAN 14 DAYS.

Even though HB-135 requires the person transferring the firearm to pay a licensed firearms dealer any amount of fees demanded by the dealer, nothing in the bill requires any dealer, anywhere to do background checks on private transfers, period!  
 
The bill sponsor must assume that dealers will be eager to accommodate this gun control measure because they have an opportunity to make as much money as they choose while implementing the liberal left’s gun control schemes.  Then there’s this:

Confiscation of Firearms under HB-135

Pretend your name is John Smith and you want to give a family shotgun to your son, John Smith, Jr.  (It doesn’t matter what your name is, this could happen to you and FDLE’s or NCIC’s mistake could result in your gun being confiscated).

STEP 1.  You go to your local licensed gun dealer for a background check on your son, as required by this bill.  

STEP 2.  You must then sign over ownership of your shotgun to the dealer before he can legally run a background check.

STEP 3.  The dealer charges you $50 (or more – as much as he chooses) to do the background check on your son.

STEP 4.  FDLE’s background check on your son confuses him for a John Smith with a criminal record: FDLE denies a transfer.  

STEP 5.  Before the shotgun can be returned to you, the dealer must first do a background check on you.

STEP 6.  The dealer charges you $50 (or more – as much as he chooses) to do a background check on you.

STEP 7.  FDLE confuses you with the same John Smith as your son, so FDLE denies the transfer of your gun back to you.

STEP 8.  Your shotgun must then be CONFISCATED by the dealer.

STEP 9.  Within 24 Hours, the dealer must deliver your shotgun to the Sheriff. (After doing a background check on the Sheriff)

STEP 10.  FDLE does nothing to correct the mistake.

STEP 11.  Unless YOU can PROVE that FDLE made a mistake, in 6 months your shotgun is forever forfeited to “the state” with no compensation whatever. There is no mandate that your shotgun be properly maintained while in “custody.”
 
BOTTOM LINE:  You have paid a dealer $100; you and your son have been labeled criminals by FDLE; your shotgun has been confiscated.  That’s only some of what Rep. Good’s bill would do if it passes.

READ THE BILL HERE

EDITORS NOTE: This NRA-ILA column is republished with permission. The featured image is by Pixabay.

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