Democrat Spending Bill Contains ‘Serious Expansion of Federal Gun Control’: Gun Rights Group

The federal government funding bill includes poison pills such as a section that would increase federal gun control, advocates say.

Congress Wednesday passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus bill that includes billions for Ukraine, earmarks for Congress members and reauthorization of the “Violence Against Women Act” (VAWA).

Democrats have perennially included gun control measures in the VAWA legislation that has caused the legislation to fail every year since it was last passed into law. in 2013. Steep opposition from pro-Second Amendment Republicans since then has tanked the VAWA. The legislation is viewed as one President Joe Biden feels personally vested in and so it was added to the spending bill that is headed to the Senate for a vote.

Almost all firearm sales require a background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Buyers with a criminal background that bars them from possessing a firearm have their request purchase denied by NICS.

Part of the renewal of the VAWA in the spending bill includes a requirement that the Attorney General notify state and local law enforcement of attempts to buy firearms by people legally barred from owning one.

A problem with that is that more than 95 percent of NICS denials are allegedly false positives, according to the National Association for Gun Rights. The gun advocacy groupo claims all local and state police would be required to investigate law-abiding citizens if they are wrongly (and, they insist, un-Constitutionally) denied the right to buy a gun.

“Make no mistake—the NICS denial reporting embedded inside the Violence Against Women Act constitutes a serious expansion of federal gun control,” said NAGR President Dudley Brown. “Not only does it rapidly expand federal gun control policy, it would actually endanger women, not keep them safe.”

Brown further argued wrongly-flagged women would be hurt by the bill, which could deny them the right to get a firearm while allowing their abusers to slide past the system.