Proposal requires background checks to buy ammo
It’s simple, lawmakers and advocates said Tuesday: Since a gun can’t kill without bullets, background checks should be required for people seeking to buy ammunition.
The move could help the U.S. deal with the epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings, they said.
“The devastating physical damage inflicted by a gunshot is the result of a firearm used and the ammunition fired. Without ammunition, firearms are no more dangerous than any blunt object,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward/ Miami-Dade County Democrat.
Wasserman Schultz first introduced the proposed requirement for background checks to buy ammunition about six weeks after the Feb. 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded.
The proposal is now named
“Jaime’s Law,” in honor of Jaime Guttenberg, one of the students killed at the Parkland high school.
Wasserman Schultz was joined Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Broward/Palm Beach county Democrat who represents Parkland; U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and Jaime’s father Fred Guttenberg, in a video news conference to renew the push for the legislation.
“When it feels like we can’t go a day without a mass shooting in our country, it’s time to treat it like the emergency that it is, the screaming emergency that it is,” Deutch said. “We need action. We need action.”
It’s already illegal for convicted felons, domestic abusers, and dangerously mentally ill people to buy firearms and ammunition. Background checks also are required for some firearms purchasers, but nothing prevents anyone from buying ammunition.
Wasserman Schultz acknowledged the legislation wouldn’t solve the problem of gun violence. But like many other issues — pool safety, internet predators, and COVID-19 — she said “layers of protection” are needed “so if one safety measure fails, another is there to catch our fall.”
The proposal faces daunting odds. It wasn’t included in legislation the House passed this year to close some loopholes by expanding background checks for firearms purchases.
But Wasserman Schultz said that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying again.
She said she is more optimistic this year with Democrats controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House. Blumenthal said he thinks the legislation could at least get a hearing in the Senate, though he didn’t offer odds for securing the 60 votes currently required by Senate rules to advance legislation. That would require 10 Republicans.
Several states have passed laws requiring background checks for ammunition buyers, and there have been challenges from the National Rifle Association. Blumenthal said the NRA is hobbled — it’s in bankruptcy court and he said it is widely seen as morally bankrupt — which could make it easier to pass.
Legislation, introduced by state Rep. Dan Daley and state Sen. Tina Polsky, to implement a Florida background check for ammunition purchasers was buried by the Republicans who control the state Legislature and didn’t get a hearing during the annual legislative session.
Guttenberg lamented his presence in the video news conference. He said his family should be enjoying Jaime’s last year in high school.
“These shootings aren’t just about those that we bury. It’s about every other American that lives with the scars of what happened that we don’t always remember as much,” Guttenberg said. Failure to act on this kind of legislation means “the outcome will be predictable. It will be inevitable. It will be a continuing cycle of escalating gun violence and dead Americans.”