This Is How the NRA Ends: The bigger, richer, meaner gun-control movement has arrived

[Eleanors38]

89. I doubt they support the NRA, but that group seems the stigma de jour...

if someone wants to play culture war with tens of millions of Americans.

The debate was over treating NON-FFL b.g.-checked individuals who purchased from individuals (current law already requires b.g. checks for purchases from FFLs). The difference from what I read was that the data for the "new" persons who bought guns from NON-FFL persons would have their NICS data stored for considerably longer than those who are checked now. This "two-tiered" system was what the ACLU objected to. The organization, I believe, considered it a violation of equal protection, and a threat for establishing an enduring data base from which a registration system could be established.

Personally, I would like to know who proposed this extended time period for holding data, as it suggests either a poison-pill, or a backdoor effort to establish a registry-in-waiting -- what the ACLU feared. But I haven't seen any "insider" reporting on the politics of this bill and the personalities involved. One of the troubles with MSM is it has for so long been virtual agit-prop for gun-control/bans that it can't be trusted to reveal the shenanigans in something like this, no matter what side one is on.

You should be able to Google up ACLU concerns about the expanded b.g. bill. It was extensively discussed in D.U. in at least one of the now-three gun groups/fora.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/15/aclu-toomey-manchin-bill-would-make-national-gun-registry-less-likely/

I found this link to WaPo which discussed the ACLU objections and remedies to those problems. By the time changes were made in the Schumer version, all momentum for any legislation was lost. IMO, little momentum was established for the start as the first calls for legislation called for bans and more bans, thus mobilizing the gun-rights base, instead of for expanded b.g. checks. All credibility was lost.