Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is looking for bipartisan support for gun-control legislation, but he's not likely to receive it for the current proposals.
Schumer on Wednesday said he didn’t think it would be worth the Senate’s time to bring legislation to the floor, in response to the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, since Republicans are not in favor of limiting access to firearms, The Hill reports.
Schumer changed his mind later in the day, however, and said he would allow votes on gun-control related amendments to a domestic terrorism bill that will be brought to the floor on Thursday.
According to The Hill, Republicans say they will block the bill from advancing, which means gun-control related measures are unlikely to be voted on before the Senate’s break for Memorial Day.
Schumer is facing pressure from progressives to make Republicans go on the record by forcing votes on gun-control legislation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a prominent progressive, said she is “always in favor of putting people on the record.”
“We don’t have a single Republican vote for any movement on gun safety and in the wake of what happened this week in Texas and last week in New York, I think Republicans ought to own up to their shameful, extremist position,” Warren said, The Hill reports.
The two proposals currently under consideration with the best chance of attracting bipartisan support: “red-flag” procedures, to remove guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others; and expanded background checks.
The fairly mainstream idea of broader background checks, which several senators on Wednesday touted as one of the most feasible reforms, still has an uphill battle to get passed in the Senate.
Last year, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he did not support a House-passed bill to require background checks for all firearm sales.
Instead, he pitched a bill last week that he negotiated in 2013 with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., with input from the National Rifle Association, to expand background checks, with exemptions of sales and transfers between friends and family.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent voice for gun-control in the Senate, rejected the Manchin-Toomey bill on Tuesday as insufficient as originally written, according to The Hill.
Red-flag legislation is increasingly being seen as the more viable option, given long-standing disputes over expanded background checks that split down party lines.
Manchin said Wednesday that he sees red-flag legislation as an issue that could receive bipartisan support.
“We talked about the red flag,” he said. “It’s worked. It’s worked in states such as Florida. It’s been very effective.”
Manchin said expanded background checks are “something that doesn’t infringe” on the rights of gun owners.
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Jack Reed, D-R.I.; and Angus King, I-Maine, introduced a bill last year to dedicate Department of Justice funds to incentivize states to set up red-flag procedures similar to Florida’s to prevent individuals deemed dangerous from buying firearms.
In another example of working across the aisle, The Hill reports that Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., crafted legislation with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to encourage states to pass red-flag laws. The Blumenthal-Graham bill has yet to be introduced.
Ideas such as President Joe Biden’s proposed ban on so-called “assault rifles” aren’t getting any serious discussion, according to The Hill.
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