Rand Paul: ‘Gun Control Bill Assembled in Secret, No One Had Time to Read It’
'In secret, absent well-placed leaks to journalists'
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With fifteen Republicans siding with Democrats as the Senate passed a gun control bill this week, Senator Rand Paul highlighted that no one had time to even read the legislation due to it being “assembled in secret.”
“Unfortunately, this legislation was assembled as many are — in secret, absent well-placed leaks to journalists,” Paul tweeted.
“There doesn’t appear to be a willingness or time provided to read, understand, debate or amend this bill.”
I will try anyway. To this end, I will introduce amendments to correct the constitutional deficiencies of this bill and hope my colleagues and the Senate leadership will do the same.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 22, 2022
Paul also vowed to try to introduce amendments to the bill to “correct the constitutional deficiencies.”
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Paul also noted:
“They didn’t even give us the actual bill to vote on it."
"They gave us a blank piece of paper and said, ‘Vote on this and trust us as to what the legislation will be when it comes forward and trust that there’ll be an actual amendment process,'” he said.
I cannot support any legislation that funds or encourages laws that allow ex parte gun confiscation without legal representation, or even sometimes without prior notification to the defendant of any accusation at all. https://t.co/UbIlIWz1yU
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 22, 2022
He also said he takes issue with the so-called "red flag laws," where law enforcement are sanctioned to remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
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There are no federal level red flag laws in the current legislation moving into the House, it does however propose $750 million in kickback grants to states that implement their own.
“These are called ex-parte hearings where a judge hears an accusation," Paul stated.
"In some states, the accusation is actually from an anonymous source."
"So under no condition would I think that your second amendment rights should be taken away with an accusation by an anonymous person,” Paul urged.
The senator added:
“I could be persuaded to vote for some aspects of this bill, but you’d have to have an amendment process to try to cure the constitutional deficiencies.”
