Encouraged by their majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats are making a new effort to enact the first major new gun control laws in more than two decades – starting with stricter background checks.
The House is about to pass two bills on Thursday that would require background checks on all sales and transfers of firearms and would also allow for an extended 10-day review for the purchase of firearms. Similar bills passed the House in 2019, shortly after Democrats won the majority, but languished in the Republican-controlled Senate for the next two years.
Democrats now control the Senate as well, giving the party hope that the legislation will at least be considered. But the bills would need significant bipartisan support to pass.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Gives a press conference on the approval of legislation to prevent armed violence at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 11, 2021, while Senator Richard Blumenthal, D -Conn., Observe.
J. Scott Applewhite
The renewed pressure is the latest effort by Democrats – and some Republicans – who have repeatedly tried, and failed, to pass tougher gun control laws since the 2012 shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 20 children and six educators. Although improved background checks are generally popular with the American public, even among some conservatives, Congress has so far failed to reach agreement on the issue. It is not clear whether Senate Democrats could find deep enough support among Republicans to pass new gun control legislation in a 50-50 Senate, as they would need 60 votes to do so.
Still, the bills are part of an effort by Democrats to advance several key legislative priorities while occupying Congressional chambers and the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said she and her colleagues promised survivors of the shootings and the families of those who died that “we will not be leaving” until the background check legislation is passed.
“The crisis of armed violence in America is a challenge to the conscience of our country – which requires us to act,” said Pelosi during the plenary debate on the bills on Wednesday. “These solutions will save lives.”
President Joe Biden called on Congress to strengthen gun laws, including a requirement to check the background of all gun sales and a ban on assault weapons.
In a speech in February, he said there was no time to wait.
“We owe it to everyone we lost and everyone who stayed behind to make a change,” said Biden as he celebrated the three-year anniversary of the Parkland school massacre in Florida, which killed 17. “Time to act is now . “
The first account is designed to close loopholes to ensure that background checks are extended to private and online sales that often go unnoticed, including at gun shows. The legislation includes limited exceptions that allow temporary transfers to avoid imminent damage, for use at a certain interval and for family gifts, among others.
The second bill would extend the review period for background checks from three to 10 days. South Carolina MP Jim Clyburn, the third Democrat in the House, introduced the legislation after a sniper killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. The FBI said a background check examiner had never seen the sniper’s previous arrest report because the wrong apprehension agency was listed on the state’s criminal history records, and the arms dealer was legally allowed to complete the transaction after three days.
Although House bills have Republican co-sponsors, most of their Republican colleagues are opposed to the changes. During the debate on Wednesday, Republicans argued that background checks would not prevent most mass shootings and would wrongly prevent some legal gun owners from purchasing firearms.
Pennsylvania MP Scott Perry said the bill would lead to more crimes because there would be “fewer people defending themselves”.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who introduced a bill that extends background checks in the Senate, said he still believes there may be unity around the gun issue and that a “growing movement of firearm violence, made up of both Democrats and Republicans are demanding change ”.
But the change is not easy in the Senate, as many at the base of the Republican Party are still viscerally opposed to any new arms control. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a moderate, have worked together for years to come to terms on background checks, but have yet to come up with anything to pass.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin, Illinois, said this week that his committee plans to hold arms policy hearings in the coming weeks.
Democrats will “test the waters and see what the Senate is feeling,” said Durbin.