Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has broken with her party on several thorny issues like abortion and guns, rejected the argument that expanding background checks tramples constitutional rights. While Democrats are calling for tougher gun laws, House Republicans have sought to loosen them. And a vast majority of GOP lawmakers in both chambers oppose any legislation that restricts gun sales or ownership, saying those measures trample sacrosanct rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Republicans view the issue through a dramatically different lens. Jared Golden (Maine), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Mary Sattler Peltola (Alaska) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.). All but four of the chamber’s 212 Democrats have signed on to the petition for the Fitzpatrick bill so far: Reps. To force a bill to the floor, Democrats need a simple majority of the lower chamber - 218 lawmakers - to endorse one of their discharge petitions. The Pennsylvania Republican was one of eight Republicans to vote for the bill each time, but it went nowhere in the Senate in the face of GOP opposition. The House passed Fitzpatrick’s background checks bill on a bipartisan basis in the past two Congresses, when the chamber was controlled by Democrats. So it just depends what the details are.” But if you’re gonna make me do a background check on my son, which was in the Democrats’ bill last cycle, that’s going too far. “I’m for upgrading our background checks ‘cause the FBI has databases. “Expanding background checks has a lot of different possibilities,” Bacon said. If you’re not doing that, what are you doing? That’s what’s very frustrating about a lot of these games being played,” Fitzpatrick said. If you actually care about getting it done, go over there and figure out how to get 60 votes. “Every single time we pass this bill, everyone’s like, ‘Our work’s done.’ It’s not done. “I really object to that, because it’s a very intellectually dishonest way of proceeding when you don’t have any strategy to navigate 60 votes in the Senate.”įitzpatrick said he is working on trying to come up with compromise legislation that can get support from Republicans and pass in the Senate, but he said it is a “sensitive issue.” But at some point, we need to start thinking about getting things done rather than sending messages across the floor of the House,” Fitzpatrick said. The background check bill, red flag laws - I voted for the assault weapons ban. The Democrats’ discharge petitions attempt to compel votes on three separate gun reform bills: an assault weapons ban expanded background checks before gun sales and the adoption of a longer window for authorities to conduct those screenings.īut Fitzpatrick, lead sponsor of the bill to expand background checks to unlicensed parties who transfer firearms, dismissed the discharge petition as a political messaging move and said he would not sign the petition for his own bill. So will that be the mass shooting that finally allows these guys to do what’s right?” “You know there’s another mass shooting coming. “It’s an extraordinary time, and we need extraordinary people stepping up,” Rep. It has also frustrated reform advocates on and off Capitol Hill who are furious that Republicans have refused to address gun violence even as it’s evolved to become the leading cause of death for children in the United States. The unanimous Republican opposition has highlighted the limited powers of the House minority, the reluctance of GOP moderates to confront their leadership publicly, and the polarizing nature of the debate over guns, which remains highly partisan despite shifting attitudes outside of Congress. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), has refused to endorse the petition, citing the likelihood that the background check bill would fail in the Senate. The gambit, known as a discharge petition, is rarely successful. But supporters had hoped the effort would bear fruit this year given the growing public outcry over endemic mass shootings and the widespread popularity of proposals like expanded background checks, one of which is sponsored by a Republican.īut even that GOP lawmaker, Rep. A Democratic strategy to move tougher gun laws through the House has hit a brick wall of GOP opposition, all but guaranteeing the hot-button issue will be relegated to the realm of campaign messaging in the Republican-led lower chamber.ĭemocratic leaders had launched procedural maneuvers last month designed to force votes on several gun reform measures over the objections of GOP leaders.
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