Senators open to talking background checks

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Democratic senators both say they are open to negotiating with the Trump administration on the dimensions of expanded background checks — even though strong headwinds from the National Rifle Association and other Democratic senators may prevent such horsetrading from ever taking place.

“If we have the opportunity to save lives by changing the country’s gun laws, we shouldn’t forsake that opportunity,” Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday in Hartford.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal echoed Murphy’s view, saying on Monday that “as long as we’re talking, there’s hope.”

“I am more than willing to work as long and as hard as possible, never giving up — and I mean never giving up — on these negotiations,” he said.

Blumenthal said he close to finishing a federal extremeriskprotection statute — sometimes referred to as a “Red Flag” statute — in conjunction with Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Modeled on Connecticut’s 1999 law, if would offer federal incentives to states to adopt laws providing for law enforcement or family or friends to obtain a judge’s order temporarily taking away guns from persons deemed a danger to themselves or others.

“We’ve ironed out all the drafting issues and we’re on the threeyard line, goal to go,” Blumenthal said, adding he is “very, very hopeful” of obtaining White House agreement.

Ideally, the “RedFlag” law would be combined with an expanded backgroundchecks statute, Blumenthal said.

But the odds of moving forward remain slim. Murphy said he has warned the administration repeatedly that he cannot guarantee getting all Democratic senators to accept something less than universal background checks.

Although legislation on Capitol Hill stalled out after the massshooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and subsequent massacres in Parkland, Fla.; Annapolis, Md., and Virginia Beach, Va., the political ground appeared to shift after similar rampages in El Paso, Dayton and MidlandOdessa in Texas.

Republicans and Trump are undergoing an “inflection moment, where they realize they can’t stick with the NRA any longer, that they’re going to get wiped out in Congress if they continue to do the NRA’s bidding,” Murphy said. “But I don’t know that Republicans have figured out how to make that break yet. And that decision is in front of the White House right now.”

Murphy and several other senators from both parties met last Wednesday with Attorney General William Barr, who put forward an expanded background check proposal that Murphy called “a fairly goodfaith effort.”

The measure would require background checks on all advertised transactions, ones where private sellers market weapons via the Internet or at gun shows. The idea falls short of Democrats’ calls for universal background checks for virtually all gun sales between private parties. Background checks now are required for sales in gun stores by federally licensed dealers, but not for casual private sellers who do not depend on such sales for a living.

Blumenthal said he saw a onepage explanation of the Barr idea that he felt raised more questions than it answers: How would a commercial sale be defined, and what would be the exact responsibilities of the “transfer agent” _ envisioned as the person who completes the background check and makes sure the seller has a record of the sale.

The NRA opposes the Barr measure. It “is a nonstarter with the NRA and our 5 million members because it burdens lawabiding gun owners while ignoring what actually matters: fixing the broken mental health system and the prosecution of violent criminals,” said Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

The Newtownbased National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry’s main trade group, had expressed concern that expanded background checks would unduly burdened licensed dealers who already have background checks to do in order to complete their own sales. But even with a “transfer agent” who might presumably alleviate that burden, the group’s spokesman took a dim view.

“We are committed to improving our background checks so they work as intended.,” said NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva. “Before we ‘expand’ background checks to include other categories, we must ensure the background checks are updated, accurate and reliable. Our firearms retailers rely upon this system to be accurate.”