Sarah Palin: Background Checks Bill 'Should Be Filibustered & Defeated'

Palin Issues Harsh Threat On Popular Gun Control Measure

Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin vowed Monday to oppose any lawmaker who supports legislation expanding background checks on gun sales.

"Please see the link below for why the latest gun control bill should be filibustered and defeated," Palin wrote in a Facebook post, linking to a fact sheet on the bipartisan compromise bill currently under consideration in the Senate. "I can not and will not support politicians who support any more limits on our Second Amendment rights."

The fact sheet, hosted on the Sarah PAC website, makes a number of claims about the legislation, which Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) released last Wednesday. The bill would close the gun show loophole for firearms purchases, and expand existing background checks to online gun sales. The agreement also exempts "personal" transfers of firearms between individuals, a sticking point for some Republicans.

"All personal transfers are not touched whatsoever," Manchin said of the legislation last week. "We've done these two [gun shows and Internet sales], and we've done them and done them right."

Palin's fact sheet accuses the legislation of using "vague and confusing language putting gun owners in [the] position of having to guess if their (supposedly constitutionally protected) personal conduct involving firearms is lawful" and granting "broad regulatory power to anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder." The literature also claims that the bill would create a national gun registry, despite the bill's provision that would penalize any public official attempting to create a registry with a felony charge carrying a potential jail sentence of 15 years.

The Senate is set to consider the bill this week. As The Huffington Post's Sam Stein & Amanda Terkel reported Monday, the legislation faces a tough path ahead. While Democrats need 60 votes to pass the legislation, just 52 senators have said they will support the bill. A bipartisan group of nine senators remain undecided on the bill, while 39 Republicans say they will vote against it.

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