September, 09 2010, 11:23am EDT
Senate Committee Will Take Up 'Reform' Bill That Would Protect Corrupt Gun Dealers
WASHINGTON
The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced plans to hold a hearing
next Tuesday on a bill that would severely undermine the powers of a key
Federal law enforcement agency to police the nation's most reckless gun
dealers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) "Reform
and Firearms Modernization Act," would severely undermine federal gun
law enforcement and protect corrupt gun dealers. The legislation would
make it virtually impossible for ATF to revoke the licenses of gun
dealers who violate federal law.
"This bill is only 'reform' from the perspective of corrupt gun dealers
who want to be free from law enforcement scrutiny," said Paul Helmke,
President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Almost 60
percent of crime guns are traced to just one percent of the gun dealers
in America. Those are the gun dealers that would benefit from this
legislation." Helmke has a new blog posted on the legislation: Read it
at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-helmke/nra-campaigns-to-protect_b_710496.html or www.blog.bradycampaign.org.
On Monday, September 7, the Washington Post editorialized against the
bill, saying it would "force the ATF to provide repeated warnings before
moving against wayward dealers. The bar for action is set so high that
it would make it all but impossible for the ATF to press forward with
any case* The bill in some instances would give gun dealers who had
broken the law a free pass. For example, a dealer whose license had been
revoked would be given 60 days to liquidate his inventory."
ATF is already hamstrung by built-in protections for rogue gun dealers,
and this bill would tie them down them ever more. The problem of rogue
gun dealers is vividly illustrated by former NRA Board Member Sanford
Abrams, who owned Valley Gun shop near Baltimore, Maryland. His shop
violated federal law over 900 times, and after nearly a decade of
violations, ATF was finally able to revoke its firearms license. The
U.S. Department of Justice called Valley Gun an "irresponsible gun shop"
that engaged in "dangerous operations" as a "serial violator" of gun
laws.
Under this proposed legislation, in cases like Abrams' where an
irresponsible dealer was repeatedly violating federal gun laws, the
burden imposed by the legislation to show "willfulness" - defined in the
bill as requiring a specific intent to break specific law - would make
license revocation nearly impossible. Moreover, the legislation caps
fines at $7,500 per inspection, which in Abrams' case could have
amounted to less than $8.50 per violation of federal gun laws.
Some of the worst provisions in the bill:
- The legislation would make it virtually impossible for ATF to
shut down rogue gun dealers, including those who repeatedly violate
federal law. The legislation would require ATF to show that a dealer
knew the specific law he or she was violating and intentionally
disregarded the law. Under current law, ATF can revoke a license for
repeated violations of law without also proving that the dealer
specifically intended to break the law. This legislation also
re-classifies federal gun laws as "serious" and "minor" and allows
license revocation only for so-called "serious" violations. So-called
"minor" violations would include dangerous dealer conduct, such as when a
dealer "loses" hundreds of guns. - The legislation would allow ATF to impose fines or temporary
license suspensions only if ATF proves that a dealer specifically
intended to violate the law, an extremely difficult burden of proof. If
ATF were able to meet this new burden, the maximum fine would be limited
to $7,500 for all violations found at an inspection of a gun dealer.
This is extremely low - sellers of unsafe products other than guns, for
example, face fines of $8,000 per violation, up to $1,825,000. ATF would
also have to postpone sanctions in most cases through years of court
appeals. - The legislation would allow most dealers who violate gun laws to
continue selling guns for 60 days after their licenses are revoked or
expire, even if they committed willful violations of federal law. It
also would allow dealers who violate federal law to evade closure by
transferring their businesses to friends or family. The legislation
would redefine federal law to make it more difficult to sanction dealers
who fail to keep proper records that are vital to enable ATF to trace
crime guns.
"The ATF needs more authority to build cases against the worst behaving
gun dealers in America, not less authority," Helmke said. "This bill
is appalling, and needs to be defeated."
As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading
the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, with its
dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, works to enact and
enforce sensible gun laws, regulations and public policies. The Brady
Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where
all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our
communities.
Visit the Brady Campaign website at www.bradycampaign.org. For continuing insight and comment on the gun issue, read Paul Helmke's blog at www.bradycampaign.org/blog/.
Brady United formerly known as The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and its legislative and grassroots affiliate, the Brady Campaign and its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence. We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.
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The U.S. Senate voted early Saturday morning to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for two years, including a "poison bill" amendment added by the U.S. House that critics and privacy advocates dubbed the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision.
The reauthorization, officially called the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, passed the Senate 60-34 despite the more than 20,000 constituents who called opposing the measure, which the Brennan Center for Justice said would enable "the largest expansion of surveillance on U.S. soil since the Patriot Act." President Joe Biden then signed the bill into law later Saturday.
"It's over (for now)," Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program, said on social media. "A majority of senators caved to the fearmongering and bush league tactics of the administration and surveillance hawks in Congress, and they sold out Americans' civil liberties."
"There is no defense for putting a tool this dangerous in the hands of any president, and doing so is a historic mark of shame."
Section 702 is the provision that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on non-U.S. citizens abroad without a warrant. Currently, they are able to do so by acquiring communications data from electronic communications service providers like Google, Verizon, and AT&T. The existing provision has already been widely abused and criticized, as the communications of U.S. citizens are often caught up in the searches.
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Goitein used similar language to condemn the vote.
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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden added, "America lost something important today, and hardly anyone heard. The headlines of state-aligned media screech and crow about the nefarious designs of your fellow citizens and the necessity of foreign wars without end, but find few words for a crime against the Constitution."
Schumer announced a deal late Friday to vote on a series of amendments to the bill clearing the way toward its passage, according toTheHill. However, all five amendments that would have added greater privacy protections were voted down, The Washington Post reported.
"If the government wants to spy on the private comms of any American, they should be required to get approval from a judge, as the Founding Fathers intended."
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Wyden was not the only one who pledged to keep fighting government surveillance overreach.
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The American Civil Liberties Union also responded to the vote on social media.
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"We're poised to be the first domino of many to fall," one worker at the Chattanooga plant said.
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Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first Southern autoworkers not employed by one of the Big Three car manufacturers to win a union Friday night when they voted to join the United Auto Workers by a "landslide" majority.
This is the first major victory for the UAW after it launched the biggest organizing drive in modern U.S. history on the heels of its "stand up strike" that secured historic contracts with the Big Three in fall 2023.
"Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly before we announced this campaign, 'You can't win in the South,'" UAW president Shawn Fain told the victorious workers in a video shared by UAW. "They said Southern workers aren't ready for it. They said non-union autoworkers didn't have it in them. But you all said, 'Watch this!' And you all moved a mountain."
"This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
According to the UAW's real-time results, the vote tally now stands at 2,628—or 73%—yes to 985—or 27%—no. Voting at the around 4,300-worker plant began Wednesday.
The Chattanooga workers announced their current union drive in December 2023. Friday's victory follows two failed unionization attempts at the plant in 2014 and 2019.
"We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking," Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW's proficiency room, said in a statement. "You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That's why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there's no way to stop them."
The union's win comes despite the opposition of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
"Today, I joined fellow governors in opposing the UAW's unionization campaign," Lee said on social media Tuesday. "We want to keep good-paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers."
However, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) celebrated the win.
"Watching history tonight in Chattanooga, as Volkswagen workers voted in a landslide to join the UAW," he wrote on social media Friday night. "Despite pressure from Gov. Lee, this is the first auto plant in the South to unionize since the 1940s. This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
Other national labor leaders and progressive politicians also congratulated the Chattanooga workers.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said the win "shows what we already know—workers in every part of this country want the freedom to join a union, and when we stand together, we have tremendous power. Even though the deck is stacked against us, momentum is on our side, and we're winning."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "This is a huge victory not only for UAW workers at Volkswagen, but for every worker in America. The tide is turning. Workers all across the country, even in our most conservative states, are sick and tired of corporate greed and are demanding economic justice."
"I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the results "an utterly historic victory for the working class."
"Tennessee is shining bright tonight," she wrote on social media Friday. "We are in a new era. Congratulations to the courageous workers in Chattanooga and the entire UAW. Absolutely heroic. Solidarity IS the strategy—across the South, and all over the country."
More Perfect Union said the victory would "change the auto industry, and the future of American labor," and the campaign organizers themselves are aware of the importance of what they've accomplished.
"We understand that the world's watching us," worker Isaac Meadows, who has been at the plant for one year, told More Perfect Union. "You know there's a labor movement in this country, you know, we're poised to be the first domino of many to fall."
Worker Kelcey Smith, who has also been at the plant for one year, added, "I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
The next domino to fall could be the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, where a UAW election is scheduled from May 13-17. All told, more than 10,000 non-union car makers have signed union cards since the UAW launched its historic organizing drive.
For the Chattanooga workers, meanwhile, their next big fight will be to secure their first union-negotiated contract.
"The real fight begins now," Fain told cheering workers. "The real fight is getting your fair share. The real fight is the fight to get more time with your families. The real fight is the fight for our union contract."
"And I can guarantee you one thing," Fain continued, "this international unionist leadership, this membership all over this nation has your back in this fight."
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