There’s a bill that’s been introduced in all but one session of congress since 2011 and it’s called the TRACE Act. On February 8, 2022, Representative Mike Quigley from Illinois re-introduced the bill; H.R.6646 – Trafficking Reduction And Criminal Enforcement (TRACE) Act. The bill has changed a little over the years but the core of it has stayed the same. From a press release, the bill has a four pronged approach:

• Require background check records to be maintained for a minimum of 180 days. The Tiahrt Amendments currently require 24-hour record destruction, making it nearly impossible to catch law-breaking gun dealers who falsify their records or track straw purchasers who buy guns on behalf of criminals.
• Require gun dealers to perform inventory checks to report lost and stolen guns, a measure currently prohibited under the Tiahrt Amendments. If law-abiding dealers reported inventories, the ATF would be much more effective at identifying lost and stolen weapons and combatting corrupt gun dealers.
• Repeal restrictions on gun trace data disclosures. Currently, members of the public, including researchers and litigants, cannot get trace data from ATF under Tiahrt restrictions. Trace data is also inadmissible as evidence in civil proceedings under existing policy. The TRACE Act would repeal these restrictions.
• Require that new firearms have a second, hidden serial number located inside the frame or receiver that is only visible under infrared light when the firearm is fully disassembled. This would make it harder for criminals to remove serial numbers from firearms in an attempt to thwart law enforcement.

There’s a good deal of trickery going on here, like always when dealing with members of the anti-freedom caucus. Quigley takes a stance on why this reintroduction of the bill is so incumbent on the public safety and welfare of people in the country.

“The rise in crime we are seeing in the city of Chicago and across the country is extremely concerning. While taking guns out of the equation won’t stop crime completely, it is a vital component of addressing the problem,” said Rep. Quigley. “The Tiahrt Amendments have kept law enforcement from being able to keep our communities safe and have protected bad apples in the firearm sales business. The TRACE Act is common-sense legislation that will close these loopholes and ultimately reduce the number of illegal guns flowing into our communities.”

I’m going to have to break decorum here for a second and call bullsh*t on Quigley. First and foremost, the Congresscritter is using Chicago as an example. Why on the planet Earth do these political hacks think it makes sense to use cities like Chicago and say New York or Los Angeles as examples of why we need more so-called gun control laws? The issues we have in cities like Chicago revolve around abject failure of the leadership of said city.

Don’t think so? New York, which has regressed back into being a cesspool of filth, was once upon a time both safe and clean. A guy named Rudy Giuliani cleaned up the place when he was a prosecutor and subsequently the Mayor of New York City. And just as cities can be cleaned up, they can revert back to garbage again, just as NYC has under the helm of Warren Wilhelm Jr. We’ll see what Adams ends up doing in the Big Apple, but so far the big hurdles he’s overcome since taking office revolve around his vegetarianism (“Let me be clear: Changing to a plant-based diet saved my life, and I aspire to be plant-based 100% of the time…I am perfectly imperfect, and have occasionally eaten fish,”). 

Quigley and his ilk want to continue to shift the power structure to allow more record retention. This measure has everything to do with creating a national gun registry. The way the press release is phrased, he ought to be schooled and get himself lernt up on things, or perhaps stop being deceitful.

Looking closer at Quigley’s mentality, we can learn all we have to about him and his character by his statement on the Biden-Harris Supreme Court pick.

“During his 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden made a promise to the American people that he would nominate the first black woman to the highest court in the land. Today, he made good on that promise. The nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson marks a pivotal moment in our history. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an outstanding candidate, and I am confident that she will make an exceptional justice.

This is the mentality of Quigley and his party. Let’s focus on race above all else. We can’t expect an individual like this to have both salient solutions and altruistic ways. He’s either obtuse or purposefully deceitful. Or, as is the case with many of the pinkos in Congress, both.

This is the fifth go around the merry-go-round for the TRACE act. Many bills get introduced and re-introduced several times prior to becoming law. This measure will do nothing to actually stop criminal activity or contribute to the safety of society. Just act to streamline the creation of a national gun registration – which we seem to already kinda have.

There’s little chance of this bill going the full ten rounds needed to make its way all the way to the Resolute Desk, and then to have someone push Sleepy Joe’s hand across the page to make it law. However, we’ll be keeping an eye on this bill and be sure to report back with any important changes.

The full test of H.R. 6646 can be found HERE.