The US House of Representatives passed two gun control bills, with two Democratic senators from Connecticut saying they expect the Senate to do the same.
HR 8, the 2021 Bipartisan Background Check Act, passed by a margin of 227-203, with eight Republicans voting in favor and one Democrat voting against.
This would expand checks for all sales or transfers of firearms in the country. Currently, these background checks are not required for sales and transfers by private, unlicensed vendors.
Even today, the HR 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021, passed a margin of 218-210, with two Republicans voting in favor and two Democrats voting against. This account would eliminate the possibility that some sales of licensed weapons will be completed before the necessary verification is completed. This practice is known as “Charleston Loophole”, in reference to what happened when Dylann Roof purchased a firearm to kill nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Currently, the law allows employees three days to complete a background check; if it is not completed by that time, the sale can be completed.
At a press conference before the vote, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said the bills represent “an idea whose time has come.” He cited the 2013 Assault Weapons Prohibition Act, introduced a month after the shooting in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Primary School, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults. That bill was defeated in the Senate by a 60-40 vote on April 17, 2013, resulting in shouts of “shame on you” in the gallery, said Blumenthal.
Republicans will “pay a price” if they don’t pass legislation in the Senate, warned Blumenthal. “People not only support it, they are also willing to vote based on that issue.”
In addition, “we now have a president who can put pressure on our colleagues.”
“(Senate minority leader) Mitch McConnell has spent the past five years trying to avoid a background check vote because of the NRA,” said Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
With the NRA’s influence now seemingly waning – it filed for bankruptcy earlier this year – and 90% of the general public supporting stricter gun laws according to several national polls, “I think a lot of Republicans are thinking about voting for a proposal that will put them on the right side of this issue. “
Asked whether the accounts would have the same fate as the Assault Weapons Prohibition Act, Murphy said: “We are living in a different world than 2013”.
“Each of my colleagues will have to decide whether they are on the side of the arms lobby or whether more than 90% of Americans want Congress to act and save lives,” added Murphy after HR 8 passed. “Our constituents will be watching closely.”
Sandy Hook Promise, the nonprofit arms control advocacy group formed after the elementary school shootings, issued a statement from its co-founder and managing director Mark Barden, who lost a son in those shootings.
“No family should go through the terrible loss of a child due to armed violence and we know that going through background checks would save many lives,” said Barden. “We have waited a long time. We call on each senator to simply do his job to protect our communities from armed violence and to pass universal background checks immediately. “
