It is no coincidence that Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., would introduce wide-sweeping and controversial firearm restriction legislation, called H.R. 45, before the House of Representatives. Rep. Rush is a former Black Panther leader whose son was shot to death just prior to Rush’s landslide election victory over then-state Senator Barack Obama in 2000. For the past two years, Rush has watched in horror as his blood-soaked city of Chicago lead the nation by far in teenage murders, mostly by other teenagers wielding handguns.
Not surprisingly, Rush’s introduction of H.R. 45 (Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009) has set off a parade of rage by ultra-conservatives and fanatical firearms protectionists. They believe the so-called “liberal” Rush, acting on the changing political winds in Washington, is reintroducing an invasive and Constitutional-trampling handgun legislation that is a direct assault on the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. Undeterred by his critics’ boisterous outcries, Rush is seeking ways to reverse Chicago’s recent label as the Murder Capital of America. According to a recent CNN report, Chicago is averaging a murdered teen a week.
According to www.opencongress.org, “The Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act would establish a nationwide system for prohibiting unlicensed gun-ownership. If approved, the law would require gun owners to apply for five-year licenses to own firearms, and would give the U.S. Attorney General broad authority over the program.”
H.R. 45 would require:
1. A federal license for all handguns and semiautomatic weapons, including those that handgun owners currently possess.
2. Handgun and semi-automatic weapons owners to be thumb-printed at the police station and to sign a certificate that would guarantee that the weapon would not be easily accessible by children or other unintended users.
Currently, there are no co-sponsors to Rep. Rush’s bill, which diminishes the chances of H.R. 45 of being adopted and passed into law. It remains to be seen if and when another congressperson will align with Rush to usher the bill through the House. –terry shropshire
