Jack Reed: “The NRA, the gun lobby, talks about enforcement. They have persistently, over decades, frustrated real enforcement. For…”

“The NRA, the gun lobby, talks about enforcement. They have persistently, over decades, frustrated real enforcement. For 10 years they refused to support the Brady bill and told their members it would effectively destroy the right to bear arms in America, resulting in total, strict gun control on all Americans. With respect to the operation of inspections, in 1986 the McClure-Volkmer Act was supported strongly by the NRA--$1.5 million of lobbying activity. That legislation limits ATF's ability to conduct unannounced inspections. If you want to enforce the law, that is fine. Then why does the gun lobby go ahead and try to constrain the law so that we can't effectively enforce laws that are on the books already? If you look at the number of ATF agents, it has declined. Fortunately, they have increased over the last year. As a result, we have more prosecutions, more referrals. The Wall Street Journal suggests, based upon evidence from a Chicago investigation: While firearm-rights enthusiasts argue that there are enough gun laws on the books, and the problem is merely lax enforcement, the Chicago case illustrates that in some areas, the gun laws have holes and enforcement is harder than one might think. That is the Wall Street Journal, not some radical newspaper in this country.”