Holiday deadline looms over gun safety proposal
WASHINGTON – The most sweeping gun safety legislation in 30 years has a viable path from the Senate to the president’s desk, but it’s being challenged.
The hang-ups are likely to be ironed out, and it’s not so much a question of if the measures will pass but when.
Senators are working to turn a bipartisan framework into legislative language lawmakers can debate. Supported by at least 10 Republicans, the gun control effort is likely to pass the upper chamber, though it’s unclear whether senators can get the work done before the recess July 4, their self-imposed deadline.
Among other proposals, senators are considering:
Expanded background checks for 18- to 21-year-old buyers.
• Grants for states to implement “red flag” laws.
• Funding for school and community mental health resources.
• Funding for school safety resources.
• Criminalizing third-party straw purchases.
In the House, the legislation could hit some headwinds, but it is likely to pass.
“There are things about this I’ve got to see,” Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said Monday during an interview with USA TODAY.
He’s glad the Senate is taking this “good step,” but he’s reticent to talk about the Senate framework until he sees the legislative language.
The issues
Part of the Senate framework would increase background checks on buyers 18 to 21 years old by including juvenile records.
That would have stopped the mass shootings last month in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Clyburn said.
Specifics and implementation are integral to the success of safeguards, Clyburn said.
He wants to see legislative language that would close a loophole involving the threeday waiting period for background checks. After those three days, even if the check isn’t complete, the gun may be sold.
“Nine souls were killed in Charleston,” partially because of that loophole, Clyburn said, referring to an attack in 2015 when a white supremacist gunman fired on Black worshippers at a church in South Carolina.
Clyburn has issues with grants to states that implement “red flag” laws, which allow courts to remove firearms from those deemed a threat to themselves or others.
He said such laws should be nationwide.
“A red flag law in South Carolina shouldn’t be different from a red flag law in Georgia,” Clyburn said. “We should unify the country with our legislative actions.” Letting states decide on their own “red flag” laws “tears at the fabric of our country,” he said.
Though Clyburn said he and other Democrats have reservations, he expects reform will pass the House – with some Republican support.
GOP support
Republicans largely negotiated the Senate gun deal from the perspective of Sen. John Cornyn of Texas who said he wanted to save lives while preserving Second Amendment rights. “I worked closely with my colleagues to find an agreement to protect our communities from violence while also protecting law-abiding Texans’ right to bear arms,” he said Sunday when he and 19 other senators announced the framework.
The 10 Republicans who have expressed support for the deal, which would give Democrats the 60 votes needed to survive a filibuster are: Cornyn; Mitt Romney of Utah; Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Roy Blunt of Missouri; Richard Burr of North Carolina; Bill Cassidy of Louisiana; Susan Collins of Maine; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Rob Portman of Ohio.
Only one of them – Romney – faces reelection this year.
“Families deserve to feel safe and secure in their communities,” he said Sunday. “It deserves broad support.”
Toomey, Blunt, Burr and Portman will retire at the end of this year.
Cornyn, Tillis, Cassidy, Graham and Collins aren’t up for reelection until 2026.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, RAlaska, has not signed onto the bipartisan Senate deal. The moderate, who has voted with Democrats, is up for reelection this year.
House leaders differ
Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot during a congressional baseball game June 14, 2017. His office did not immediately respond to questions from USA TODAY about whether he or other Republicans would support the Senate gun deal.
Scalise has objected to measures pushed by his colleagues across the aisle.
As Democrats led a hearing last week to address gun violence, Scalise offered a rebuttal at a news conference where he compared the response to mass shootings with the aftermath of 9/11.
“Airplanes were used that day as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country,” he said. “There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes.”
Instead, there was a conversation about “connecting the dots” and figuring out how to spot the signs to stop attacks, he said.
Airport and national security changed after 9/11. The Transportation Security Administration was added, the Department of Homeland Security was created, and air travel has been different throughout the nearly 21 years that followed.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not respond to USA TODAY’s questions on the Senate deal.
Even without Republican support, the House has enough of a Democratic majority to pass the package.
Last week, the House passed legislation that would raise the minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, ban highcapacity ammunition magazines, expand background checks and require safe storage for firearms.