Dems push for changes in gun laws
‘We have to act’ in wake of shooting, president says
WASHINGTON — Democrats said Tuesday that they are pushing toward a vote on expanded gun control measures as the nation reels from its second mass shooting in a week.
President Joe Biden said “we have to act,” but prospects for any major changes were dim, for now, in the closely divided Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Tuesday to bring to the Senate floor legislation passed by the House that would require background checks for most gun sales and transfers. He said the Senate “must confront a devastating truth” after a lack of congressional action on the issue for almost three decades.
“This Senate will be different,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said a day after a shooting at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, killed 10 people,
including a police officer. “The Senate is going to debate and address the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”
While a Senate vote on new gun control would be the first in several years, Democrats do not have the votes to pass any significant reform. They are not even united themselves, as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters Tuesday that he opposes the House legislation on background checks.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on proposals for gun control. It is unclear whether any of the bills up for consideration — most of them involving more restrictive background checks — would have made a difference in the Colorado case.
A 21-year-old man charged with killing eight people in three Atlanta-area businesses last week had purchased a 9 mm handgun hours before the murders, prompting advocates to push for longer waiting periods for purchases.
In brief remarks responding to the Colorado shooting, Biden urged Congress to move quickly to close the loopholes in the background check system and to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — an effort that would be even more difficult to achieve politically. According to a police affidavit, the Colorado shooter had purchased an assault rifle six days earlier.
“It should not be a partisan issue,” Biden said. “This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who has pushed for expanded gun control since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six educators, expressed optimism about the chances for new laws with Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling the House and the Senate. He called it “the dawn of a new era.”
Reality is likely more complicated.
Senate Democrats do not have enough support among Republicans to pass new gun legislation in the 50-50 Senate, as they would need 60 votes to do so. While expanding background checks is generally popular with the public, even with some conservatives, Congress has been unable to find a successful compromise on guns in decades, making it one of the most intractable issues in U.S. politics.
Some Republicans hinted that they would be open to negotiations, though it was unclear if there were any real bipartisan discussions.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he opposed the House legislation, but “I’m certainly open to the discussion.”
Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who have worked together for years to find compromise on background checks, said they were opposed to the House legislation, which would close loopholes to ensure background checks are extended to private and online sales that often go undetected, including at gun shows, with some limited exemptions for family and other scenarios.
A similar version Manchin and Toomey proposed after the Sandy Hook shootings included a broader set of exemptions than the House bill.
The House also passed a second bill to extend a certain review period for background checks from three to 10 days. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., introduced the legislation after a shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015.
Manchin did not say whether he would restart negotiations, only that “we’re going to try to do the responsible, reasonable thing.”
Democrats say they feel the environment around gun legislation has evolved, especially since that last major push in 2013. They point to troubles at the National Rifle Association, the long-powerful advocacy group that poured tens of millions of dollars into electing Donald Trump in 2016. The organization has been weakened by infighting as well as legal tangles over its finances.
In Tuesday’s hearing, which was scheduled before the Colorado shooting, Republicans showed no signs of wavering.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that every time there is a shooting, the Senate engages in “ridiculous theater,” with Democrats proposing laws that he said could take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Republicans have argued that background checks would not stop most mass shootings and would prevent some lawful gun owners from purchasing firearms.