The Democrat-led House on Wednesday broke a years-long stalemate over gun control legislation, approving a bill to expand background checks to nearly all firearms sales and transfers. The measure is unlikely to survive the Senate, but House Democrats said at least they made good on vows to aggressively push the issue in the wake of a spate of high-profile mass shootings. “Can we guarantee that this will work to make every person safe? It cannot. It will not,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said in a floor speech. “But I rise in strong support of doing something, and in this case doing something that 90 percent of America supports.” The legislation passed 240-190, with eight Republicans voting yes and two Democrats voting no. Republicans said that while well-intentioned, the legislation wouldn’t have prevented recent massacres where shooters had legally acquired their firearms or where the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — NICS — failed to flag someone. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who survived a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in June 2017, said Democrats weren’t interested in hearing his testimony on the issue. “Every day on average in this country, guns are used by good people to defend themselves against bad people, and it’s going to make it harder for them to get access to these guns,” the Louisiana Republican said. Under current law, a dozen categories of people, ranging from those with criminal convictions to those with mental health problems to illegal immigrants, are barred from buying firearms. But only federally licensed gun dealers are required to run potential buyers through NICS. Democrats said felons and terrorists are potentially slipping through the cracks by buying guns online and at private gun shows. Republicans did score a victory during Wednesday’s action, tacking on an amendment requiring NICS to notify the Department of Homeland Security any time an illegal immigrant tries to buy a gun. Deportation officers would then be able to decide whether to try to pick the person up. Illegal immigrants attempted to buy guns more than 3,000 times both in 2016 and 2017. Democratic leaders opposed the amendment, complaining the illegal immigration aspect was an attempt to “muck this up with a gimmick.” But enough Democrats joined with Republicans to approve the notifications. Still, gun control advocates hailed the broader vote as historic, after they had been stymied on major federal gun legislation since the 1990s. Congress voted to set up NICS in 1993 and passed a ban on military-style “assault” weapons in 1994. That ban lapsed a decade later, though the background checks have remained in effect and draw strong bipartisan support in public polls. “Americans finally have a majority in the House of Representatives that is listening to them,” said former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was gravely wounded at a constituent event in January 2011 and has since become a prominent advocate of gun control. After years of being outspent and outmanned by gun-rights groups, Democrats say the politics of the issue are fundamentally shifting in their favor after the February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed. But Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said there was little chance the GOP-controlled Senate would take up the legislation. “What’s less than none? If there’s something less than none, that’s the chance,” Mr. Kennedy said. The White House has said President Trump’s advisers would recommend that he veto the bill if it makes it to his desk. Even facing those hurdles, the House is set to vote this week on another gun bill from House Majority Whip James Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat. It would extend the amount of time a dealer has to wait to hear back from the FBI on whether a would-be purchaser is barred from having a gun before proceeding with a sale. Mr. Clyburn’s bill is intended to close the “Charleston loophole.” That’s a reference to gunman Dylann Roof, who shot and killed nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015. The FBI said a communication breakdown allowed Roof to buy a gun shortly before the shooting despite a prior drug-related arrest. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would require a federal background check for all firearms purchases, including those between private citizens, according to NPR. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 passed 240-190. It is referred to as "bipartisan" because it has five Republican co-sponsors, and eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill in total. Other Republicans, including Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, said the law would not be effective in preventing illegal gun violence. "This is fundamentally about whether we make policy that feels good, or actually does good," Crenshaw said in an interview posted on the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action Twitter. "This new law makes some people feel good, but it's not going to do any good. ... This would only make it harder for law-abiding Americans to actually protect and defend themselves." NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox called the bill "extreme." "It will also make it harder for good people to defend themselves and their families," Cox said in a statement. "Criminals, on the other hand, will continue to get their firearms the way they always have—through the black market, theft, and straw purchases." President Donald Trump has publicly stated that he will veto the bill even if it passes the Republican-controlled Senate, which in itself is unlikely. What's in the bill? Currently, only licensed gun dealers have to run a background check on a customer who wants to buy a gun. This bill would prohibit any gun sale from taking place without a federal background check being completed. This includes private gun sales between friends or strangers, online purchases, and gun show purchases. The law would not apply to gun transfers between close relatives (parents/children, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, spouses, domestic partners, grandparents/grandchildren). Gun owners would be able to loan their gun to someone at a shooting range or for hunting/trapping/fishing as long as there is no reason to suspect the gun will be used in a crime and the person is legally able to possess a gun under state and federal law. Guns could still be given to someone else in a "temporary transfer that is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, if the possession by the transferee lasts only as long as immediately necessary to prevent the imminent death or great bodily harm," according to the bill.<doc-sep>McBath willing to work across the aisle for gun bill (CNN) — The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed significant gun control legislation for the first time in more than two decades, a move that Democrats hope will intensify a pressure campaign for a vote in the Senate. The universal background check bill, H.R. 8, requires background checks on all firearm sales in the country. Currently, only licensed gun dealers must perform background checks for anyone seeking to purchase a firearm. Most unlicensed sellers do not; H.R. 8 would make that illegal. There are exemptions to the law like “gifts to family members and transfers for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense,” according to the House Judiciary Committee website. The measure passed 240-190. Eight Republicans voted for the bill, and two Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted against it. The bill will move to the Senate, where it is unlikely to pass in the Republican-majority chamber as legislation often needs 60 or more votes to advance. The bill, sponsored by a bipartisan duo of Reps. Mike Thompson, a California Democrat, and Peter King, a New York Republican, remains an outlier right now in the House since it has bipartisan support. Most of the legislation related to gun control has been sponsored by Democrats. Four other Republicans co-sponsored the bill: Brian Mast of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Fred Upton of Michigan. King told CNN on Tuesday that he may get a few more Republican colleagues to vote for the measure, but “no more than a handful.” At a 25-year anniversary party for the gun control group the Brady Campaign on Tuesday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence that the universal background checks bill would pass the House of Representatives. At the event, Pelosi also recalled her efforts with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the 1990s on gun control as “hard,” but a “triumph that saved millions of lives.” “Tomorrow we’re going to send him the background check legislation,” Pelosi said to her Senate colleague with a wide smile. Schumer predicted that the country is on the “precipice of great change” on the issue of gun safety. “We have a Democratic House that will not flinch. We have a Senate Democratic minority that will not flinch. Most of all, we have a public who is aroused and strong.” Democrats, including Pelosi, have made this a top policy priority in the new Congress, staging public hearings on the topic which had not been held for years in Congress. The legislation also has the backing of a multitude of outside groups, including the former congresswoman and gun control advocate Gabby Giffords, the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. “Today’s historic gun safety victory in Congress is a testament to courage,” Giffords said in a statement after the passage of the bill. “When the days were darkest, when it looked like the gun lobby’s money and influence would forever silence any debate in Washington about stronger gun laws, courage shone through.” Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat who represents the district where the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting occurred last year, called the passage “a really incredible moment to be on the House floor as we passed the first piece of gun legislation in decades.” On Tuesday, King urged his Senate colleagues to consider the bill. “I would think that they should let it come to a vote,” he said, adding that the average American supports the universal background checks bill. “This is not going to affect more than probably less than 1% of the American people and the ones it will affect either suffer from mental illness or are criminals. So to me, it’s a phony issue being raised by some of the gun groups,” he said. King understands that public opinion is on his side on this issue. A recent Quinnipiac poll conducted in January found that 92% of Americans support requiring background checks for all gun buyers. Of that 92%, Republicans supported the idea of background checks 89% of the time and Democrats supported it 95%. Despite pressure from the House, Senate Republicans are unlikely to take up the legislation, according to a member of Senate leadership. Majority Whip John Thune – the second ranking Republican in the chamber – told CNN on Tuesday that it’s “unlikely” that the Senate will take up the bill for debate soon. Thune pointed to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System modernization bill that the Senate approved last year. That legislation – which was sponsored by Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Chris Murphy – improved reporting to the national background check system. In the simplest terms, the bill didn’t strengthen background checks but instead incentivized state and federal authorities to report more data to the database. “I think that we’ve dealt with that issue here,” he said of last year’s efforts. Another sign of coordinated efforts around the vote: Gun control group Everytown is dumping $400,000 into advertisement purchasing and sponsorships with media outlets and targeted ads on Facebook asking people to contact their representative about the bill, according to a spokesperson for the group. This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.<doc-sep>
The House passed a bill that requires universal background checks for all gun purchases. It faces stiff opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Congress House passes most sweeping gun control legislation in decades In one of their biggest moments since winning the majority in November, House Democrats pushed through legislation on Wednesday mandating federal criminal background checks on all gun sales, including private transactions. For Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats, it represents a signature moment as they try to fulfill their campaign pledge to take action on gun violence. The House passed the bill on a 240-190 vote. Eight Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats, while two Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Collin Peterson of Minnesota — voted with Republicans against the legislation. The background checks legislation faces stiff opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate, and President Donald Trump — who has strong backing from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups — has vowed to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk. But House Democrats insist that some federal action must be taken to address the growing toll of gun violence. In addition to Wednesday's vote, they will move legislation on Thursday to close the "Charleston loophole," which allows people to buy guns before background checks are completed, and extend the time period for any background checks from three days to as long as 20 days. White supremacist Dylann Roof was able to buy a gun in 2015 despite pending drug charges, and he later killed nine African-Americans at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. “Background checks work,” Rep. Mike Thompson of California, the lead Democratic author on the background checks bill, said on the House floor. "Every day, they stop 170 felons and 50 domestic abusers from getting a gun from a licensed dealer. But, in some states, those same people can go into a gun show or go online and buy a gun without a background check. This bill will help stop them from doing so. "Some will argue that criminals won’t follow the law," he said. "If that is the case, then why do we have laws against murder? People still commit murder. Why do we have laws against stealing? People still steal. This is flawed logic. Don’t fall for it." The Democratic proposal would require federal background checks on all gun sales, including private transactions. It includes some small exemptions, like for transfers between family members or temporary use of a gun for hunting. Gun-control groups estimate that roughly one-fifth or more of gun sales don't include background checks. But in an embarrassing blow to Democrats, 26 of their own members broke ranks and joined with Republicans to add language to the bill that would report undocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they attempt to buy a gun. Republicans were ecstatic about the maneuver, which embarrassed Pelosi and other Democratic leaders. It is the second time i nth past month Democratic leaders have lost a vote to the minority party. Yet the last-minute floor snafu didn't dissuade Democrats from pushing through the legislation, a major revision of the current background check system for gun purchases. "Every day, 47 children and teenagers [are] killed by guns," said Pelosi, who noted that "90 percent of the American people want commonsense, universal background checks." Rep. Peter King of New York, one of the Republicans who co-sponsored the gun bill, said his party must alter its stance on guns or face a backlash from voters in 2020 and beyond. King said Republicans can't be beholden to the NRA or other gun rights groups. "The overwhelming majority of Americans support it, and we shouldn't allow a small faction who come out and vote in primaries to scare away the whole party," King said. "There's a moral perspective. I think it's important. From a political perspective, this is a key vote in the suburbs. We did badly in the suburbs last time; we're going to do worse this time. This an issue that even strong, solid Republican conservatives can't understand why we don't support it." But House GOP leaders and gun rights groups argued the legislation — even if it became law — would not reduce gun violence, especially the unending stream of mass shootings the country has suffered.