A bipartisan measure aimed at preventing terrorist suspects from buying firearms survived a procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, a sign of possible progress on the issue of gun control that dominated Congress all week.
Nine Senate lawmakers from both parties touted the amendment as a compromise that would make the nation safer from gun violence while protecting the Second Amendment right to own guns.
“What we have done here is achieve a balance,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who co-sponsored the bill along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose GOP conference believes the measure violates the due process rights of citizens, sought to kill the amendment in a procedural vote. His side came up short in the vote, 46-52.
However, that vote suggests a tough road ahead for the measure, since it will need 60 votes at some point in order to advance further in the upper chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on GOP leaders to allow a cloture vote on the Collins-Heitkamp compromise measure, even though it fell short of 60 votes that would be needed to clear a procedural hurdle.
The compromise measure earned a majority, Reid said, which is a big victory for gun control advocates who have been unable to advance legislation for more than two decades.
“We won the vote,” Reid said. “Now the Republican leadership has the responsibility to bring the Collins bill to the floor for a real vote.”
The bipartisan amendment would block gun purchases by people who in the past five years have appeared on the “no-fly” list or a “selectee” list that requires them to receive extra scrutiny before flying.
Republicans back an alternative measure sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would require the federal government to prove in court that a person should be prevented from buying a gun.
Proponents of the compromise said they included a provision allowing due process for those on the two lists who want to purchase a gun.
“The government would have the burden of proof in order to deny the sale and would have to present its case within a short and reasonable period of time,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., said on the Senate floor before the vote.
The vote took place shortly after House Democrats ended a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor that they conducted in an effort to force the GOP to hold votes on two gun control measures.
Also Thursday, senators tabled a second measure offered by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that would prevent people on the terror watch list form buying guns but require the government to first prove in court that a person should be blocked from making the purchase.
