Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
No one voted for Sen. Kelly Loeffler to be a senator from Georgia. That’s not a slam, just a fact. Loeffler was appointed to fill the seat by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) after Sen. Johnny Isakson (R) resigned from office due to health reasons at the end of 2019. She hasn’t been in office long and is now trying to hold onto her seat, but so far, the people of Georgia haven’t elected her for anything.
Yet, anyway.
However, if she keeps introducing legislation like this, I suspect a lot of people in the state will change that.
Loeffler’s bill, the Gun Owner Privacy Act, would ban the use of federal funds to store personal information collected during background checks attached to gun purchases. Federal agencies are already barred from creating a database of gun owners, but the legislation will give citizens recourse for any infringements on their privacy. While the law would not apply to Americans who fail background checks, those whose records are illegally stored will be able to sue agencies in federal court and collect damages.
Loeffler also introduced a resolution condemning what she said were “laws that unduly inhibit and infringe upon the rights of a law-abiding individual to carry a firearm outside of the home.” The resolution attacks limits on gun-carry permits as “unlawful infringements of the rights granted by the Second Amendment.“ She called on the legislature to step up to protect gun rights.
“The Second Amendment is our Founding Fathers’ reaffirmation of our natural God-given right to defend life, liberty and property,” Loeffler said in a statement first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. “Law-abiding citizens should be free to exercise their Second Amendment rights without overly intrusive government regulation.”
Loeffler specifically singled out an incident in Maine where a former state trooper argued the government was keeping records of who bought what firearms, thus creating an illegal database, an example of what her bill would seek to prevent.
Of course, there’s no hope in hell of this bill passing. As much as I’d like to see this become law, as things currently stand, the best that could happen is this bill passes in the Senate and then dies in obscurity in the House. It’s not likely to happen, and we all know it.
However, Loeffler is in a tough political fight. A bill like this could shore up support for her prior to the election in November, where she’ll face two Democrats and a fellow Republican, the top two finishers likely ending up in a runoff unless one amasses a majority of the votes.
It’s also likely an effort to distance herself from an insider trading scandal. Loeffler was one of several Republican lawmakers accused of trading stocks ahead of a stock market crash after being briefed that such a thing was likely. While the Justice Department has finished its investigation into Loeffler and isn’t filing any charges, such a thing is probably not going to help her in November.
So, a good, pro-gun bill makes a lot of sense from a political standpoint.
However, it’s also a good bill that needs to pass, regardless of whether it’s sincerely meant or the result of political calculation–and I honestly don’t know that either way–because far too many people think the identities of gun owners shouldn’t be private, that they should be public record with all our personal information available to just anyone. We shouldn’t need protections like this, yet we do.
It’s only a shame that Loeffler’s bill won’t go much of anywhere.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/06/24/gun-owner-privacy-act/