The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S2938) was signed into law by President Biden in July 2022. Among other things, the bill provides the following:
- Requires background checks for firearms purchasers under 21 to include checks to determine if the person has a juvenile record that would prohibit them from purchasing a firearm. (Violates Equal Protection provided in the 14th Amendment as it discriminates against a segment of the population based on age.)
- Expands the time for the FBI to investigate cases of possible disqualification for purchasers under 21 from three to 10 business days. (Violates Equal Protection provided in the 14th Amendment as it discriminates against a segment of the population based on age.)
- Provides $100 million to meet “additional resource needs” of NICS.
- Provides $1.4 billion for Office of Justice Program grants.
- Provides $750 million over five years for crisis intervention programs.
- Provides $200 million for STOP School Violence grants.
- Provides $200 million for states to upgrade their criminal and mental health records and upload records to NICS.
- Provides $100 million for COPS program grants.
- Provides $250 million to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Community Mental Health Block Grant program.
- Provides $40 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
- Provides $150 million in one-time funding to implement the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
- Provides $240 million for SAMHSA’s Project AWARE.
- Provides $120 million for Mental Health Awareness Training.
- Provides $60 million for behavioral health training for primary care providers.
- Provides $80 million for pediatric primary care providers to access mental health training and services through HRSA.
- Provides $50 million to CMS for Medicaid school-based programs and implementation grants to states as authorized in this bill.
- Provides $1.05 billion for school improvement programs
- Provides $1 billion for safe schools and citizenship education programs.
Total: $5,790,000,000
Items 3 to 18 violate the 10th Amendment which reserves “…powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states… to the States respectively, or to the people.”
This Tsunami of federal funds to the states and schools is nothing less than a thinly disguised bribe to convince us to ever expand the scope and power of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. All of these functions can be (and should be provided) at the local level.
This bill goes directly contrary to the following platforms of the Utah State Republican Party:
REAFFIRMATION OF STATES’ RIGHTS
We oppose congressional, judicial, and executive abrogation of the principle that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. We oppose unreasonable and intrusive federal mandates.
SELF DEFENSE
We support the individual constitutionally-protected right of the people to keep and bear arms for security and defense of self, family, others, property, or the state, as well as for other lawful purposes. We encourage personal responsibility for the care and use of these firearms.
UTAH STATE SOVEREIGNTY
…The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States defines Federal powers as those enumerated in the Constitution and reserves all other powers to the States and to the People.
It remains the sacred responsibility of the States as creators of the Federal Government to keep the federal powers within the limits set by the Constitution.
We resolve that the Republican Party of the Great State of Utah and elected party members take any and all steps necessary to ensure that Federal powers exercised within the Great State of Utah not exceed those granted by the Constitution of the United States, and that those usurpations of State Sovereign Powers already violated by the Federal Government be corrected by the State Legislature and enforced by the Governor’s office thus protecting Utah State Sovereignty
The source of information contained herein is:
https://www.rpc.senate.gov/legislative-notices/s2938_the-bipartisan-safer-communities-act
Respectfully submitted as a private citizen and member of the Iron County GOP County Central Committee and not as spokesman for any organization.
Volney Morin
