Senate Republican leaders said Tuesday they’ll soon bring a compromise gun control bill to the floor, after lawmakers defeated four partisan gun measures in response to the latest in a string of mass shootings.
GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pledged to hold a vote on legislation sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, as early as this week. It would empower federal authorities to block gun purchases by people who appear on the “no-fly” list or who are on a “selectee” list that requires them to receive extra scrutiny before flying.
“Essentially we believe if you are too dangerous to fly on an airplane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun,” Collins said just after she presented her plan to GOP lawmakers in a closed-door meeting.
Collins unveiled the plan flanked by four Democrats, three Republicans and an Independent. The lawmakers said they joined the compromise effort because they believe the public wants Congress to take action to prevent more mass shootings.
Among the co-sponsors is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whose state suffered one of the worst mass shootings in history when a gunman killed 32 Virginia Tech students in 2007.
“I’m sick of the shootings, I’m sick of the vigils, I’m sick of the claims that we’ll do something about it, I’m sick of the partisan rhetoric and I’m really sick of getting to the end of all of it and not doing something about it and seeing that happen again and again and again and again,” Kaine said.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., another co-sponsor, said he felt compelled to back the Collins measure because of the victims of the Orlando shooting earlier this month, which killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
“I owe it to the people of Orlando to try to get something done,” he said.
The bill could face steep resistance from both parties, however.
Most Republicans have so far been unwilling to back anything more than a bill authored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would only temporarily ban gun purchases by those on the terror watch list until the government can prove the sale should not be allowed.
And on the Democratic side, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she believes the Collins bill is too narrowly focused.
The no-fly and selectee list make up just a fraction of the one million people under federal scrutiny for possible terrorism. Feinstein is the author of a measure that would ban gun sales to anyone under scrutiny within five years.
Collins said the Feinstein measure casts a net that is too wide, while her more focused proposal is likely to win more bipartisan support.
“It is information that is not necessarily vetted, corroborated of investigated,” Collins said of the Feinstein bill.
