WASHINGTON — The bipartisan group of senators working on a gun control bill say their framework includes an expansion of criminal background checks — however the policy could be more modest than past proposals.
After the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) would have expanded background checks to cover gun sales through web advertisements and at gun shows. Because it stands now, only licensed gun dealers must do background checks, and personal sellers don’t.
But a comprehensive background check proposal just like the one previously proposed by Manchin and Toomey is now off the table, based on the Democrat leading the present round of bipartisan gun negotiations.
“We’re not going to pass comprehensive background checks,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Murphy expressed hope that a narrow deal on guns would open the door to broader reform by showing Republicans that their willingness to interact on the difficulty is politically popular.
The Manchin-Toomey bill failed by six votes needed for passage when the Senate considered it in 2013. 4 Republican senators voted for it on the time. Toomey and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are the one Republicans who voted for the proposal who’re still within the Senate.
Manchin has said he thinks the present gun talks, prompted by massacres in Buffalo, Recent York, and Uvalde, Texas, are more serious than last time. However the proposals into consideration appear to be much weaker, largely because of hardened Republican opposition to any gun reforms.
In truth, many GOP lawmakers argue that no recent laws would prevent people from committing gun crimes. Republicans have said their important goals are to spice up school security, address the “mental health” issues that contribute to mass shootings and encourage states to enact “red flag” laws allowing police to temporarily confiscate weapons from dangerous people.
The background check change Murphy described Sunday involved putting juvenile records into the FBI’s National Fast Criminal Background Checks system. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo were each 18-year-olds who legally purchased their assault rifles.
“Often, those juvenile records aren’t accessible once they walk into the gun store buying as an adult,” Murphy said. “So we’re having a conversation about that specific population, 18 to 21, and easy methods to make certain that only the fitting people, law-abiding residents, are getting their hands on weapons.”
Congress recently raised the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21 but an identical change for purchasing firearms seems more likely to be omitted from a Senate deal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) prolonged a casual deadline for the talks to the tip of this week.
The House of Representatives approved a bill last month that will require a background check for nearly any gun sale by requiring sellers to first transfer firearms to licensed dealers before completing a transaction. Such “universal” background checks aren’t even a part of the conversation within the Senate, which is the chamber that can ultimately resolve whether a bill gets passed and what it looks like.
Expanding background checks is probably the most popular policy options in front of Congress. In an Ipsos survey last month, 84% of voters, including 82% of Republicans, said they supported expanded background checks. It’s not hard to see why, since background checks are only a way of ensuring that gun sellers follow the law.
Federal law disallows firearm sales to certain people, including those that have been convicted of felonies and people who find themselves subject to court orders related to domestic abuse. But when a prohibited person is buying the gun from an acquaintance, or a stranger on the web, or a hobbyist at a gun show, then the vendor doesn’t have to envision their background.
Toomey described specifics over the background check proposal that’s being discussed as a “moving goal.”
“We’re still attempting to determine exactly what mechanism goes to enable us to get the votes that we would wish. So I can’t be precise about that … It hasn’t been finally resolved,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But something within the space of expanding background checks I believe is actually — is on the table and I hope shall be a part of a final package.”
