Today, President Biden signed the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act into law, a nearly 3000-page bill that funds all government programs.
Included in the Pelosi shepherded bill, H.R. 1620:
misdemeanor lifetime firearm prohibitions for non-domestic, non-violent crimes, as well as create firearm prohibitions for ex parte restraining orders. This bill was a clear attempt to treat the Second Amendment as a second-class right and use the serious issue of domestic violence as a smokescreen for its real goal – banning firearm ownership to as many people as possible.
The first provision would have broadly expanded the type of relationship that qualifies for a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence lifetime firearm prohibition to include “former dating partners,” a subjective term that could easily be misconstrued; this is what gun control advocates refer to as closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole.”
The bill would have also created an entirely new lifetime prohibition for persons convicted of any misdemeanor “stalking” offense; referred to as closing the so-called “stalking loophole.” Many “stalking” offenses do not include violent or threatening behavior, or involve any personal contact whatsoever; a misdemeanor conviction from tweets that cause “emotional distress” to a person, for example, could have been grounds for a lifetime firearm prohibition.
To make matters worse, the proposed “boyfriend loophole” and “stalking loophole” prohibitions would have applied retroactively to convictions that occurred before the legislation was passed, resulting in untold numbers of citizens being denied their Second Amendment rights because of actions that occurred years or even decades in the past.
Furthermore, the bill would have created a new prohibited category for those under ex parte restraining orders; this time called the so-called “ex parte loophole.” In other words, a mere accusation to a court by an accuser, without the accused present to defend themselves, would be enough for a firearm prohibition to apply. This would have represented a clear denial of constitutional due process protections, as notice and an opportunity to be heard must be afforded to the accused before any deprivation of a constitutional right.
The good news?
In February 2022, a bipartisan VAWA-reauthorization S. 3623 was introduced in the U.S. Senate. Due to the tireless advocacy outreach by NRA-ILA and NRA membership, none of the so-called “loophole” language was included in the bill – a serious blow to gun control advocates in and outside of Congress, as well as Joe Biden, but a major win for supporters of the Second Amendment. S. 3623 text was included in the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act that Biden signed into law.
