FACT CHECK: Second Amendment

Grassley works to protect our constitutional rights and keep our communities safe. 

• Supporting the Second Amendment and legal gun ownership does not mean we should ignore the tragic incidents of gun violence that take place across our country. All of us, law-abiding gun owners especially, have a responsibility to ensure safer communities. Fully and aggressively enforcing existing laws will help reduce gun violence and respect the Second Amendment.
• Senator Chuck Grassley has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. He believes we should defend and protect the Second Amendment, which is a fundamental part of American life, particularly for us in Iowa.
• Grassley has introduced the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act, aka Grassley-Cruz, which would: improve the NICS background check system, ensure relevant mental health records are actually submitted to NICS and bolster/ensure alerts to law enforcement if a problem arises. It would mandate a first-of-its-kind study on the causes of mass shootings by the National Institute of Justice and National Academy of Sciences. It also criminalizes straw purchasing and cracks down on gun trafficking, among other pro-community safety measures.
• Grassley convened a hearing in December 2017 to examine bump stocks, following the deadly shooting in Las Vegas. The Trump administration issued an executive order banning bump stocks.
• Grassley also worked to hold the FBI accountable for its failures related to gun violence, including when it failed to act on information received by the FBI tip line in the lead up to the Parkland, Florida school shooting, for example.
• When the Obama administration created a rule that required the Social Security Administration to report beneficiaries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (the NICS list, otherwise known as the gun ban list)—with no due process, Senator Grassley authored a bill that stopped that rule. It was passed into law in 2017. 
• Senator Grassley also authored bipartisan legislation that would require the Veterans Administration to better protect veterans from being improperly reported to the gun ban list with no recourse or due process. 
• No parent should have to worry about their child’s safety when they send them off to school in the morning. After the Parkland shooting in Florida, Senator Grassley introduced legislation called the EAGLES Act to help identify troubled youth and get them the help they need. Parkland parents endorsed this legislation.

Mike Franken said at a Dubuque campaign stop in May that Democrats need to “get radical” on gun control.

• At a Chariton campaign stop in May, Mike Franken praised ultra-restrictive foreign gun control policies, while failing to acknowledge that Americans have a right to defend themselves. And when public safety has been so degraded by liberal soft-on-crime policies, people have legitimate concerns.
• Mike Franken supports tracking gun owners or creating a federal registry. That kind of information would be used to infringe on Second Amendment rights, especially considering the Biden Justice Department has become so politicized.
• Mike Franken thinks Joe Biden is doing a “fabulous job” as president. But, Joe Biden’s soft-on-crime policies have led to rising crime across America. How can Mike Franken support that? On Joe Biden’s watch, we’ve seen terrorists take over Afghanistan and drug cartels and human smuggling rings run the show on our southern border. Meanwhile, the Biden Justice Department turns a blind eye on violent protests at pregnancy clinics and sets its sights on parents speaking up at school board meetings and orders a raid on the home of a former U.S. president. Law-abiding Americans expect and deserve due process and equal application of the law, not a two-tiered system of justice.

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