Burr & Hagan, Toomey-Manchin, and that can of worms known as 'background checks' | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton sniffs out the core of politicians in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    Well, our two US Senators have thrown in with the Ruling Class effort to chip away at our Second Amendment rights. Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr-McCain-Graham (R?) voted for cloture on the grand compromise on gun control put forth by West Virginia's Joe Manchin (D) and Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey (R). Instead of standing firm and reminding the masses about their rights under The Constitution, Hagan and Burr joined the stampede for fawning approval from the mainstream media, which has been milking the Newtown, Conn. school shooting for ALL IT'S WORTH. You expected this from Hagan. But Burr -- not so much. What makes Burr's sellout especially frustrating is that NO ONE really knows the details of the bill.

    "Background checks" give the government one more way to nose around in your private business. These "background checks" that are being demanded for gun purchases -- will they include criminal record checks as well as reports into ANY mental health counseling or treatment? Who decides WHAT offenses make you unfit to legally purchase a gun? Will a conviction for writing bad checks or fraud keep you from legally purchasing a gun? Those are not exactly violent crimes. What about folks who seek mental health counseling for stress or depression -- say, following a job loss, divorce or death in the family? Would that restrict you FOR LIFE from buying a gun legally?

    What about HIPPA and all of those other privacy laws around medical records? Who will review customers' medical records to determine whether they are "safe" to sell guns to? The clerk at Wal-Mart?

    If I recall correctly, neither the Virginia Tech shooter, the Gabby Giffords shooter, the Colorado theater shooter, nor the Newtown shooter had any sort of prior record of violent criminal behavior. How would background checks have stopped those crimes? The Newtown shooter stole his guns from his mother -- who had NO criminal record, no history of treatment for mental health disorders, and had purchased her guns legally.

    Opening up mental health records to government scrutiny may have the effect of discouraging people from seeking mental health care. Imagine your medical records being used a lot like your credit report. Imagine your ability to lawfully purchase something being determined by what you told your therapist, or what your therapist said about you.

    During World War II, our leaders responded to a national panic about the Japanese by locking up thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans in internment camps. Talk about a national disgrace and an affront to The Constitution. Currently, we have opportunistic, devious politicians and a duplicitous mainstream media attempting to chip away at our Constitutional rights by whipping up a national panic over gun violence and gun ownership.