GOP aims to weaken ‘bill’
WASHINGTON, April 15, (Agencies): As the US Senate prepares to debate a gun-control bill for the first time in two decades on Monday, Republicans in the House of Representatives are devising ways to delay and weaken gun legislation they see as limiting Americans’ right to bear arms, congressional sources say.
Some Republican lawmakers and strategists are urging House Speaker John Boehner to kill any gun-control bill passed by the Senate by refusing to take action on it. But the Republican speaker is planning what could be a monthslong review of the bill that likely would involve chipping away at gun-related measures in the plan while pushing for proposals to identify and treat the mentally ill as the best hope for a compromise plan to reduce gun violence.
House Republicans’ focus on mentally ill criminals has become sharper in recent days, as a bipartisan plan to expand background checks on prospective gun buyers gained momentum in the Democrat-led Senate – thanks in part to emotional calls for action in Washington by family members of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting.
Like most Republicans in the Senate and a few Democrats from conservative, gun-friendly states, many House Republicans oppose the Senate plan to expand background checks and are under intense pressure from constituents and the gun lobby to resist such measures.
That level of opposition in one chamber of Congress typically would be enough to quash a bill without action. But some House Republicans say they are wary of refusing to act on any gun bill passed by the Senate.
At a time when public opinion polls suggest that at least 80 percent of Americans favor expanded background checks – and as family members of the Newtown victims help Obama keep up the pressure on lawmakers – these Republicans worry about their party looking like an obstructionist if it does not allow at least an airing of the Senate bill.
Also: WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court is staying out of the gun debate for now.
The justices on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a strict New York law that makes it difficult for residents to get a license to carry a concealed handgun in public.
The court did not comment in turning away an appeal from five state residents and the Second Amendment Foundation. Their lawsuit also drew support from the National Rifle Association and 20 states. The high court action comes amid an intensifying congressional debate on new gun control measures. The issue has resurfaced prominently in Washington in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults.
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The Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday on that plan, which would expand background checks to include those who try to buy guns online and at gun shows.
Other Senate amendments would ban high-capacity ammunition magazines and military-style “assault” weapons – measures generally seen as having little chance of going anywhere.
The background checks proposal – probably Democratic President Barack Obama’s best chance at getting a significant gun-control bill through Congress – is expected to wind up in the final Senate bill, along with plans to boost funding for school security and tighten restrictions on gun trafficking.
Boehner has pledged that the House will act on any gun bill that emerges from the Senate. He has indicated that the House’s review would allow a lengthy debate without many of the deadlines and restrictions that usually guide the chamber’s work.
Many House Republicans saw that as a signal that conservatives who are staunch defenders of gun rights will have several weeks, or months, to come up with amendments that could make the gun bill unpalatable even to Senate Democrats who now support it.
For House Republicans, guncontrol legislation is a political tightrope.