Senate Democrats stymied in bid to move quickly on stemming gun violence
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked action on a bill aimed at strengthening the federal government’s efforts to combat domestic terrorism, rejecting a measure put forward by Democrats after a racist massacre in which a gunman motivated by white supremacist ideology killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket.
Democratic leaders had framed the procedural vote as the best vehicle for quick action on gun violence prevention measures after this week’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
If Republicans had allowed it to move forward, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said he would have opened the bill up to proposed changes from both parties to address gun violence.
“It’s a chance to have a larger debate and consider amendments for gun safety legislation in general, not just for those motivated by racism — as vital as it is to do that,” Schumer said, imploring Republicans to allow the debate to open. “I know that many members on the other side hold views that are different than the views on this side of the aisle. So let us move on this bill. Let us proceed.”
But Republicans voted against even considering the measure, arguing that the bill was unnecessary and defined extremism in a way that could be too broadly construed by law enforcement. The party line vote was 47-47, leaving Democrats short of the 60 needed to move forward on the bill.
The result is that senators will leave Washington for a weeklong Memorial Day recess without passing any legislation to address the pair of mass shootings that have horrified the nation this month.
The bill that fell short Thursday, known as the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, would establish three new offices — one each in the FBI, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security — to monitor, investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism. It would require biannual reports assessing the domestic terrorism threat posed by white supremacists, with a particular focus on combating “white supremacist and neo-nazi infiltration of the uniformed services.”
It was first introduced in 2017, but Democratic leaders moved to quickly pass it into law after the shooting in Buffalo, in which the gunman appeared to have been inspired by the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” which holds that Western elites are plotting to disempower white people by replacing them with people of color.
The failure of the legislation was no surprise to Senate Democrats. They have staked their hopes for gun safety legislation instead on bipartisan negotiations led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-conn., that are expected to focus on strengthening so-called red flag laws, which are intended to restrict potentially dangerous people from having guns.
“I’m hopeful there is growing momentum,” Murphy said Thursday. “But I have failed plenty of times before.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch Mcconnell, who has said little about gun legislation since the several tragedies have unfolded, told reporters he met with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas earlier and encouraged senators to work together across the aisle on workable outcomes.
“I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre,” Mcconnell said.