NRA Chooses Greg Lavelle and Ernie Lopez to Scuttle Criminal Background Checks.
Any doubts that the Delaware Republican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association should now be laid to rest. Former NRA Executive Director (and State Rethug Chair) John Sigler has anointed his serial bloviator and vice-chair Sen. Greg Lavelle as the person best-suited to kill mandatory criminal background checks on firearms transactions. With an assist from self-styled ‘moderate’ Sen. Ernie Lopez.
Lavelle’s tortured explanation as to what his newly-proposed legislation would do goes like this. According to the News-Journal quote, his bill:
“…doesn’t mandate background checks. It doesn’t create a registration. It allows people to make smart decisions for themselves.“
Great. Because people always make smart decisions for themselves. Especially when it comes to deadly weapons that they’re unloading for cash. And, if they don’t, they could be in trouble once the bodies are scraped off the bloody sidewalk.
Lavelle’s attempt to scuttle criminal background checks would make ‘it a crime to sell a firearm to someone prohibited from possessing guns’. Got that? It would be up to the seller to conduct a criminal background check on a prospective purchaser. (Or, perhaps, to look soulfully into their eyes.) Except, of course, any seller would not have access to any sort of data base. And Ernie Lopez, marching in lockstep, has proposed a bill to increase penalties for those who ‘knowingly’ sell firearms to someone prohibited.
Even by NRA standards, this is pathetic. Without background checks, the gun sales addressed by HB 35 would be ‘unaddressed’ by the Lavelle and Lopez proposals. After all, under their proposals, ignorance is a deliberate defense. ‘I didn’t know that this guy was a three-time loser.’ All righty then.
Let’s call this for what it is: An attempt to muddy the waters just enough to deep-six common-sense legislation.
It’s up to you to let your legislators know that you will not stand for this.
And for you Brandywine Hundred/Greenville denizens who supported Greg Lavelle and, for that matter, Ernesto Lopez last time? They’re both up for reelection in 2014.
Tags: Delaware criminal background checks, John Sigler, Sen. Ernesto Lopez, Sen. Greg Lavelle
I’m so shocked to find out that Ernie Lopez is a lockstep GOP fraud.
Wow, Jason. In the words of my first girl friend: “That didn’t take long.”
Jason: It’s like the mob — they make you kill someone so that you’re just as guilty as they are, to reinforce your loyalty to your common criminality. He’s just making his bones.
It’s kinda like Lavelle’s bill. Wait ’til they kill someone before you maybe go after the person who supplied the guns.
Problem is, people are already dead.
Which is why HB 35 is needed. Less dead people.
Lavelle is apparently trying to increase Delaware’s market share in the business of getting guns in the hands of those prohibited. And while he pretends that this thing lets people make their own decisions, he isn’t doing nearly as much to make sure these sellers are accountable for the bad decisions. Seriously, if I were a Dem Senator, I would try to amend this thing to make the seller also financially liable for whatever mayhem guns sold using the Carnac the Magnificent method being proposed by Lavelle here.
Are you opening the door for our favorite Carnac jokes? If so:
“Green Acres”
Re: Lopez.
This is what happens when Democrats don’t support their own candidate.
(Rips open envelope): What does Kermit the Frog have if Miss Piggy kicks him in the groin?
I want a front row seat (in the gallery, of course) for the first case to present the ‘he didn’t _look like_ a felon’ defense.
😆
@Carnac jokes
Johnny: ‘Sic Semper Tyrannus’.
Ed: ‘Sic Semper Tyrannus’.
R-r-rips open envelope: “What do you tell your dog to do when Semper Tyrannus is sitting on your lawn?”
Lopez is a tool. Marching in the parade in Milton he just creeps me out for some reason. All goofy grin and forehead. Wife dressed like she’s homeless.
”
Comment by SussexAnon on 15 March 2013 at 11:24 am:
Re: Lopez.
This is what happens when Democrats don’t support their own candidate.”
Er, no. This is what happens when the Republicans run a better candidate. The choice for the Democrats was a guy who acted completely insincere and went nastily negative at the first opportunity.
Mayan – Really? You’re going after his wife’s clothes? What are you, a dipshit?
Inka Dinka Doo.
(Tears envelope) What gets all over your Inka Dinka if you leave it out all night?
Ernie’s my new Senator, not that I supported him. I’ll be giving him a call.