GOOD: Ryan faces GOP defections on gun proposal.

Already dealing with threats of another Democratic floor protest, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is now facing defections from the right on a GOP gun bill that conservatives complain is unconstitutional.

The handful of Republican naysayers has raised doubts about whether Ryan can muster enough votes from his own party to pass the gun provision. Backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the GOP legislation was favored by Republican leaders as a more acceptable alternative to Democratic gun-control bills.

But Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), an opponent of the GOP provision, said: “I think it’s dead.”

The gun provision was part of a larger GOP anti-terrorism package that was set to hit the floor on Wednesday. But that vote was postponed to allow GOP lawmakers, returning from the weeklong July Fourth recess, more time to study and discuss the package, said Rules Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas).

“Enough members don’t have enough information,” Sessions told reporters as he left a GOP leadership meeting in the Speaker’s suite. “What we’re trying to do is work toward resolution where we’re all on the same page.”

Sessions said GOP leaders hope to reach a consensus in their conference, but he declined to speculate about when the package might be brought forward.

The House GOP gun proposal would give the Justice Department three days to convince a judge there’s probable cause that the prospective buyer would use the weapon in connection with terrorism and stop the sale.

But conservative lawmakers, including several who belong to the far-right House Freedom Caucus, argued that the legislation could violate an individual’s Second Amendment rights, based on what the government anticipates that person might do in the future.

“If the bill becomes law, it will mark a massive expansion of the government’s ability to restrict gun rights on the basis of precrime—a crime not yet committed,” Freedom Caucus member Justin Amash (R-Mich.) posted in a lengthy diatribe on his Facebook page. This bill “is the actualization of dystopian fiction.”

That describes so much these days.