Our side’s 26-hour long sit-in yesterday got results! This just happened!
The Senate just voted on bipartisan legislation banning gun sales to people on the no-fly list.
Senate Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote on the measure crafted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., and a handful of colleagues from both parties, though she’s unsure it will get the votes needed to move forward.
The procedural aspect of this gets a little complicated, but today’s vote was a “motion to table,” which means “yea” was a vote to kill Collins’ amendment, while “nay” was a vote to keep it alive. The final tally was 46 to 52, which means the measure survived. [
Update:
Here’s the roll call. Note, Democratic support was unanimous, and they were joined by seven Republicans.]
The National Rifle Association opposed the proposal, which makes today’s outcome a bit of a surprise: in a Republican-led chamber, the NRA is not accustomed to losing floor votes on gun policy.
Today’s outcome doesn’t mean the Collins amendment passed, but that’s the next step. The fact that it cleared today’s test keeps the measure alive, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who endorsed the amendment, has said he’ll push for further action on Collins’ policy.
Inch by inch, step by step, Democrats are taking our country back!
UPDATE #1: commenters who are concerned with the civil rights issue of the “No Fly List” need to consider the fact that the bill is at its most preliminary stage. This is the equivalent of wanting to sew a shirt from scratch but with no details yet of what material will be used, what the shirt will look like, etc. Instead, what this bill did was gain permission to even consider that a shirt will be made. It’s a start — and the fact that the NRA’s disapproval was ignored (even by quite a few Republicans) is a Big Fucking Deal!
The following link is the roll call of the vote. Note that this is one of those bills where a “NAY” (“No”) vote is the right vote. As the roll call vote shows, the motion to kill the bill failed and that’s a win for Democrats. All Democrats voted “NAY,” along with a surprising (and gratifying) number of Republicans.
On the Motion to Table (Motion to Table the Motion to Commit H.R. 2578 with Instructions (Amdt. No. 4858) )
UPDATE #2: I suppose none of us will be surprised to find that a vote later in the day went the opposite way and the bill was killed (a very appropriate word) but that doesn’t negate the fact that this particular vote was something much different than we’ve seen for a long, long time. Here’s that story: McConnell Quashes Senate Effort On Guns