The Gun Owners of America is planning a campaign to boot Sen. Pat Toomey out of office, charging the Pennsylvania lawmaker betrayed his conservative base by supporting expanded background checks.
“We have exactly 3½ years to do this and we’re going to take it very seriously. We’re going to try to hold him accountable,’’ Larry Pratt, executive director of the advocacy group, told Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’
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“This is not why I had gone to Pennsylvania to campaign for Pat Toomey against Sen. Arlen Specter in that Republican primary … This is a very bad thing that he’s doing to advance the gun-control agenda of the Democrats.’’
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A threatened GOP filibuster narrowly failed Thursday when 16 Republicans joined 50 Democrats and two independents to vote to end debate and consideration of the legislation.
Pratt, whose non-profit lobbying organization has been working to defeat tougher gun laws, claims Toomey was tricked into changing his mind by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“He got rolled. I don’t know that he understands perhaps just how much Harry Reid deceived him, because a lot of these Republicans voted wrong,’’ Pratt said.
“Where we had a chance to stop them was with the filibuster.’’
Pratt said the Republican-Democrat compromise that has been hammered out “doesn’t keep guns out of the bad guys’ hands.
“Can’t buy it at the store? Well, I’ll go out on the streets and I’ll get one from cousin Vito or something of that sort.’’
He said the beefed-up background checks are ultimately illegal.
“This is about building a registry of gun owners,’’ he said.
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“When a dealer now sets himself up to do a background check through [the government’s] Internet portal, they’re told in writing that the names that are submitted are going to be the property of the United States government, period. That’s in violation of two federal laws.’’
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