Relief won’t include checks

No direct payments before Biden begins, lawmakers say

WASHINGTON — With time running out, lawmakers Sunday closed in on a proposed COVID-19 relief bill that would provide roughly $300 in extra federal weekly unemployment benefits but not another round of $1,200 in direct payments to most Americans, leaving that issue for President-elect Joe Biden to wrestle over with a new Congress next year.

The $908 billion aid package to be released Monday would be attached to a larger year-end spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown this weekend.

The cash payments were popular when they were distributed after the pandemic hit, and Biden on Friday had expressed hope that a second wave might come after weekend negotiations.

But senators involved in the talks said the checks won’t be included as part of the compromise, even as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and others said that could cause them to oppose the measure.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the secondranking Democrat, indicated that excluding the checks while assuring small-business aid and renters’ assistance was the only way to reach agreement with Republicans who are putting limits on the bill’s final price tag.

“The $1,200 check, it cost we believe nationally $300 billion to give you an idea,” he said. “The Democrats have always wanted a larger number, but we were told we couldn’t get anything through the Republicans, except this $900 billion level.”

The plan being worked on by a group of Republican and Democratic senators is less than half of the Democrats’ push of $2.2 trillion and nearly double the $500 billion “targeted” package proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., agreed that a new round of direct checks “may be a go” at some point. “This is not a stimulus bill, it’s a relief bill,” he said. “And it’s something for the next three to four months to help those in greatest need.”

Cassidy and Durbin said that McConnell has shown interest in the bipartisan effort, and Cassidy said he was hopeful that President Donald Trump would embrace it as well.

violence they have seen in the media.

“They’re afraid of people breaking into their houses and people burning and looting,” Hartman said. “Election results have increased firearm sales — not just with Trump supporters.”

A Westminster woman who only offered her first name Debbie because she knows people who lost business because of their support for President Donald Trump recently purchased a pistol-caliber carbine — a short-barreled rifle that shoots pistol ammunition — from Hartman’s shop. A business owner, she travels a lot and sometimes brings her guns with her.

“There’s a lot more crime going on right now,” she said. “And all the unrest that’s going on, you don’t know when it’s going to come to your neighborhood.”

Biden’s election will further reverse what Lytton called the “Trump slump” — a decline in gun sales since Trump’s 2016 election. He now thinks the opposite will be true.

“Concern over the prospect of new restrictions on the sale and ownership of firearms in the incoming Biden administration may well add to the already record number to gun purchases this year, especially among those who already own firearms,” Lytton said.

COVID-19 also threw a wrench in the “Trump slump,” as some feared governments were being too heavy-handed with restrictions intended to slow the virus’ spread.

“People who generally favor gun rights are also people who favor gun rights in large measure because they’re worried about government tyranny,” Lytton said. “Public health measures that involve locking down businesses and keeping people from traveling fueled those types of anxieties, so firearms owners went out to purchase more weapons.”

A second group of people has bought weapons, particularly handguns, in response to a perceived breakdown in civil order, in light of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, Lytton said. These people are largely first-time gun owners, he said; a National Shooting Sports Foundation survey of 175 member firearm retailers found that owners said an average of 40% of their customers between January and April fell in that category.

Many of these first-time gun owners felt that the police wouldn’t be there to protect them when they need them, said Mark Pennak, president of gun rights group Maryland Shall Issue.

“The short of it is that people are afraid. That is a very powerful reason,” Pennak said.

But perception can diverge from reality. More than 93% of all demonstrations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement were non-violent between May and August, according to a study from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data

Project. In Maryland, more than 98% of demonstrations recorded by the project have been non-violent between George Floyd’s death in May and Nov. 7, according to project spokesman Sam Jones.

There’s no reason that Lytton can think of as to why Maryland wouldn’t be going along with the national trend of increased gun sales, Lytton said.

“The closer you are in to Baltimore, the more liberal voters get, and the more their association with firearms is about urban violence. The farther out you get and the more rural you get, the more people are worried about government tyranny and centralized control of personal liberties,” Lytton said. “You have both urban and rural narratives that are fueling firearms purchases.”

Shannon Frattaroli, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the public health community fears a rise in deaths by suicide due to more guns being purchased. With elevated levels of unemployment and increasing isolation during the pandemic, suicide risk factors have increased, she said.

“There’s a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty about the future. We really need to be concerned about suicide risk and with the increase in gun sales,” Frattaroli said. “It feels like a really dangerous situation we’re in right now.”

Although people may think guns make them safer in times of uncertainty, more guns generally means more violence, said Liz Banach, executive director of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

“If you’re really worried about your safety, get a security system or a dog,” Banach said. “A gun is much more likely to put you or your family at risk.”

Pennak calls concerns about increased gun violence “fear mongering.”

With the uptick in first-time gun owners, Banach fears gun newbies might not have the training or experience to handle the firearms safely.

Brian Wolf, chief marketing officer of Guntry, an indoor shooting and training facility in Owings Mills, said the facility has seen its training classes sell out.

“We’re selling out those classes because we here making a huge push for education,” Wolf said.

With firearms selling fast, gun dealers are working hard to restock, but manufacturers haven’t been able to keep up, especially with COVID-19 impacting supply chains. The demand has created firearm shortages in Canada, as the number of American guns sold outside the United States has been restricted to help keep pace with domestic demand, Lytton said.

And the trend is only likely to continue, experts say, given Biden’s victory.

President Barack Obama “was the best gun salesman in the history of the United States, and I think Biden will be likewise. People will buy in anticipation of the regulations,” Pennak said. “Gun owners will likely not trust the new administration.”