Almost predictably, the U.S. House of Representatives passed universal background check bill H.R. 8 on March 11, 2021. As AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News reported, this bill would criminalize “private gun sales conducted apart from an FBI background check.”
California Congressman Mike Thompson sponsored H.R. 8, which ended up being approved by a 227 to 203 vote.
Hawkins highlighted what H.R. 8 would entail:
H.R. 8 would expand retail point-of-sale background checks so as to cover private points-of-sale. This will criminalize an individual who sells a 5-shot revolver to a lifelong neighbor, unless that neighbor first undergoes a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check, conducted by the FBI.
On March 10, bill sponsor Thompson asserted that “90 percent of the American [people]” support his bill, without showing any evidence to back up his claim.
BLP previously reported on the passage of H.R. 8 in 2019. The bill ended up dying in the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans at the time. This time, it will receive considerable debate from the Democrat-controlled Senate. If signed, this bill would mark the largest expansion of gun control since the Brady Act was enacted in the mid-1990s.
However, the presence of Democrat Senators — Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin — hailing from pro-gun states will make it unlikely that such legislation will be passed.
Nevertheless, it should still be opposed by gun owners and used as campaign material to whack all the elected officials who voted in favor of it.
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