Congressional Gun Control Debate, Feeding the Anti-Government Paranoid, Appeasing the NRA

Just a few days ago, Republicans and Democrats seemed poised to agree on universal background checks for gun sales, an issue on which a majority of Americans agree.  Now, Republicans are throwing another roadblock onto the road to an accord by insisting that no records be kept for private gun sales.  Tom Coburn (R-Ok): "There absolutely will not be record keeping on legitimate, law abiding gun owners in this country.  (Record keeping) will kill this bill."

what eye thynk:    Gun store owners already keep records of all their gun sales, and Mr. Coburn must be aware of that, so that makes his no-records statement false to begin with.  

And why should private sales be  treated differently in the first place?  Are the people who buy guns from gun stores less law abiding--and thus more in need of a background check--than those who buy at gun shows?  Surely Mr. Coburn doesn't believe that.

Republicans and the NRA are arguing that records of private sales will be used by the government to come and "take away your guns"; but can they offer one example of a gun owner having his gun confiscated using a gun store sale record?  No, of course not.  This is a ridiculous argument used to keep anti-government paranoids on high alert.

Allowing a record keeping exemption for private sales would make the law toothless--a complete waste of paper.  If no private sale records are kept, how would we know if a background check was even made?  Whose word would we take that such a background check was carried out--the private seller who opposed the law in the first place?  Even Washington cannot expect us to be that naive.

From a Daily News article earlier this month:  "Other gun control proposals poll well, but universal background checks has long been 'incredibly popular' winning support from 80-90% of respondents in a host of recent national polls, noted Margie Omero, a pollster who studies the issue."

This latest opposition issue is just another example of the conservative politician's inability to compromise, even if it is for the common good.  Even if the people most effected by the law voice their favor for the change.  The only conclusion I can reach is that congressmen like Mr. Coburn value NRA money more highly than they do the people they are supposed to represent.