Bipartisan group of senators pushes for gun deal

WASHINGTON — After the deadliest school shooting in a decade, a small, bipartisan group of senators have begun an urgent and uphill effort to strike a compromise on new gun laws, voicing hope that a wave of collective anger at the slaughter of 19 children and two teachers could finally spark change.

Members of the bipartisan group emerged from a private meeting Thursday determined to work quickly to try to reach a deal on modest steps to limit access to guns. They agreed to spend the Memorial Day recess examining a number of proposals, including ways to incentivize states to pass so-called red flag laws aimed at taking firearms away from potentially dangerous people and expanding criminal background checks for gun buyers.

“We’re at a point in this debate and in the trajectory of gun violence where we need something,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who is spearheading the talks. “We need to show progress. People are frightened. And so I’m probably much more willing to accept something smaller and important, but incremental, than I was a few months after Sandy Hook.”

The massacre 10 years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., prompted a nearly identical set of calls for action and expressions of bipartisan resolve on Capitol Hill, ultimately bringing Congress to the brink of enacting bipartisan background check legislation in 2013. But the measure failed in the Senate, with a majority of Republicans and a few Democrats in opposition.

Murphy hosted a group of senators in his basement hideaway office in the Capitol on Thursday, including multiple veterans of failed negotiations over gun legislation.

In an interview later in the day, Murphy conceded that he was embarking on a difficult task: trying to find a solution for gun violence that 10 Republicans could support, enough to break a filibuster.

The Republicans at the meeting included Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; another Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, called in. Other Democrats in attendance included Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Talks were expected to continue over recess, with senators breaking into groups to discuss specific issues.