McConnell’s backing boosts Senate bipartisan gun deal
‘Red flag’ proposal may be a hurdle
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his support Tuesday for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement, boosting momentum for modest, but notable, election-year action by Congress on an issue that has deadlocked lawmakers for three decades.
The Kentucky Republican said he hoped an outline of the accord, released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, would be translated into legislation and enacted. McConnell’s backing was the latest indication that last month’s gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP after years of steadfast opposition to even incremental tightening of firearms curbs.
“If this framework becomes the actual piece of legislation, it’s a step forward… on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell told reporters. He said the proposal “further demonstrates to the American people” that lawmakers can work together on significant issues “to make progress for the country.”
McConnell’s comments were striking, coming five months before midterm elections in which Republicans hope to win control of the Senate and seem likely to win a majority in the House. For years, GOP candidates could risk their career by defying the views of the party’s loyal gun-owning and rural voters who oppose moves seen as a threat to the ownership and use of firearms.
McConnell seemed to suggest that backing this gun measure might even help some Republicans’ prospects in November. While he said senators should take a position “based upon the views of their states,” he said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a chief architect of the deal, presented GOP polling data at a closeddoor senators’ lunch saying support among gun owners for the agreement’s provisions is “off the charts, overwhelming.”
The plan would for the first time make the juvenile records of gun buyers under 21 part of required background checks. Money would be sent to states for mental health and school security programs, and for incentives to enforce or enact local “red flag” laws that let authorities win court approval to temporarily remove guns from people considered dangerous.
Senators and aides hope to translate their broad agreement into legislation in days, hoping that Congress could approve it before leaving for the July 4 recess. Both sides acknowledge that the process could encounter disputes and delays.
Some Republicans expressed unhappiness with the plan Tuesday, with much criticism aimed at its encouragement of “red flag” laws. Nineteen states, most dominated by Democrats, and the District of Columbia have them, but Republicans have blocked efforts to pass federal legislation on the subject.
“I don’t know what we can do in view of the Constitution,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said of the overall agreement, citing the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Cornyn defended the plan’s “red flag” proposal, saying it gives “every state, regardless of whether it has a ‘red flag’ law or not,” money for programs aimed at improving public safety and helping troubled people get assistance. Texas does not have a “red flag” law.
McConnell made clear he would go only so far in restricting firearms.
Asked by a reporter why the federal minimum age is 21 for tobacco sales, but 18 to buy rifles, he added that including state and local juvenile records in background checks for the youngest guy buyers was “a step in the right direction.”
The alleged shooters in Buffalo and Uvalde were both 18 years old, a common profile for many mass shooters.
A final agreement on overall legislation would need at least 10 GOP votes to reach the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold. McConnell’s plaudits raised hopes that Republican backing would grow beyond that.