If you were denied the right to criticize a president until a week before the election, would that infringe on your right to free speech? We'd all argue that it does, especially because people like President Autopen did enough stupid over those four years that you'd never fit it all into a one-week window.
Plus, as they say, a right delayed is a right denied. If I have to wait to speak freely, then I'm not able to speak freely.
If Congress tried to pass a law that you could only attend church on Sundays, would that interfere with the freedom of religion? Absolutely. Some people view Saturday as the sabbath. Others like to attend on Wednesday evening. Others, like Catholics, seem to have mass every day of the week so people can attend when they can attend. To limit when people can worship to particular days is an infringement on the free exercise of religion.
Again, a right delayed is a right denied.
So, that brings me to Dick Blumenthal's latest travesty. Other than claiming he served in Vietnam, he also seems to dislike gun rights very much. His latest bill seeks to end the three-day maximum hold on stalled NICS checks. Gun stores can hold indefinitely if they want, but under the law, no return after three days is treated as a positive check. Most of the time, that's what it turns out to be anyway.
But as noted at the NRA's America's 1st Freedom, a right delayed is a right denied.
Perhaps the very honest catchphrase “a right delayed is a right denied” inspired gun-control activists to push for this legislation in the U.S. Senate.
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The gun-control groups supporting this bill are trying to sell it with the alliterative slogan: “no check, no gun.”
What it would actually do is allow the government to delay a sale for as long as an agency likes—hence, the “right denied” part of the slogan.
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To a person who has never dealt with a government agency, perhaps this might sound reasonable. But, with even a little thought, any reasonable person would understand why it is not, as this legislation would allow activists in government to delay this right almost indefinitely. This change would also take the pressure off even a well-intentioned bureaucrat by letting them move as slowly as they like; indeed, it would arguably be in the bureaucrat’s interest to stall and stall, as any mistake could be blamed on them.
As I noted on Wednesday, this would also allow officials to reduce manning for NICS to ridiculous levels, knowing full well that it will delay background checks even more. Instead of having to wait a few more days, it could stretch to weeks or months as only a token workforce would be carrying out the NICS mission while the resources that should be there are reassigned to other tasks.
The waiting period limit is a check. It was put in place specifically to prevent officials from taking as long as they like to return a check. They have every incentive to address every background check request as timely as humanly possible because they only have three days before the store is allowed to release the firearm.
In effect, this puts an indefinite delay on any firearm purchase, which delays the very right. As I pointed out above, we would never tolerate a delay in our other rights, but we've tolerated this one. We tolerated it because it was capped at just three days. We knew that at the end of those three days, we'd have our guns and all would be well. We tolerated it because it was limited.
We never should have. That's obvious, because while anti-gunners "compromised" with us on that, they never were going to hold to their word. We gave up part of our rights in the name of compromise, and now the one thing they sort of gave up is on the table once again.
Well, we're not rolling over on this one.
A right delayed is a right denied, and while they say, "no check, no gun," what they should be saying is, "no rights, no how."
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