The 10-8 partisan vote Tuesday morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a universal background check for gun purchases may portend trouble when the measure comes up in the full Senate. It depends on whether Republicans are willing to filibuster against a proposal that the vast majority of Americans have shown in poll after poll that they favor. Choosing to take a stand against the proposal may be something at least a handful of Republican senators are not willing to do, even if approving it brings the wrath of the National Rifle Association to bear against them when they next run for reelection.
The committee also passed, on a 14-4 vote, a Department of Justice program that provides grants to school security programs.
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York had worked with three other senators for weeks negotiating changes in a proposal to extend federal background checks to private sales of firearms. Only transfers to family members would be exempt. Currently, the checks are only mandated for sales handled through federally licensed dealers. The lack of universal coverage, gun-control advocates say, weakens the effectiveness of the background check law because it allows anyone prohibited from buying guns as a consequence of felony convictions or mental health adjudications to acquire them from private sellers over the backyard fence, out of the trunk of a car or at a gun show. Read more about the negotiations below the fold.
One of the negotiating senators, Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, would not bend on an issue that Schumer is adamant about: record-keeping of private sales. Without records the law will be ineffective, Schumer says. Coburn, echoing the National Rifle Association, the gun industry's mouthpiece, and other gun-rights advocates, sees record-keeping on private sales as a prelude to gun confiscation down the road. So the vote Tuesday was on a "placeholder" bill, a background check law based on the one Schumer introduced in 2011. Sen. Joe Manchin III, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate and another of the four negotiators opposes the placeholder bill as being too strict in its current form.
The issue of a gun registry came up in the committee's debate today, with Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa saying that record-keeping would lead to a national registry. Schumer responded:
“This idea that this will lead to national registration or confiscation, I have to tell you — my good friend, Chuck Grassley — that to me demeans the argument here.”
Schumer also blasted Republicans for suggesting that the new bill would not deter criminals from continuing to violate federal gun laws — saying that the GOP never makes such arguments when the Senate debates new laws to curb terrorism or financial crimes.
“We never see the argument, ‘Oh, we shouldn’t have laws, because the bad people will get around it anyway.’ Only on this issue—and it makes no sense, with due respect,” he said.
Having been unable to garner Coburn's support, Schumer still hopes to get some Republican backers on board for the bill, which will almost certainly have to be amended at least modestly to get enough Democratic support.
Next up on the Judiciary Committee's gun-law agenda is the assault weapons ban introduced in January by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. The law would prohibit importing, manufacturing or the sale of more than 150 models of military-style, semi-automatic rifles. Backers say they have enough votes on the committee to report the proposal to the full Senate, presumably another 10-8 party-line vote. But once the bill gets there, it faces very tough sledding. Several Democrats, including Sen. Manchin, will almost certainly oppose the law. And even if they could be cajoled or arm-twisted into supporting it, there is prospect of a Republican filibuster.