Senate Democrats on Tuesday were preventing movement on a bill to boost the criminal background check system for gun purchases, even as Republicans kept up the pressure for a quick vote in the wake of this month’s school shooting in Florida.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he wanted the Senate to approve a bill this week that would provide a mix of penalties and rewards aimed at getting states and federal agencies to add eligible names to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
“What I don’t want to do is leave this week and go back home to Texas and say we failed to do anything to try to address these tragedies,” said Cornyn, who co-sponsored the Fix NICS bill with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
But Democrats made it clear they want more than the Fix NICS bill.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a teenager shot and killed 17 people earlier this month. Schumer said the students “think this bill is fine but certainly not enough.”
Schumer is demanding the addition, at the very least, of universal background checks, which would expand screening requirements for firearms transactions to gun shows and Internet sales.
“We want a debate, but we want a debate on more than Fix NICS,” Schumer said Tuesday. “We Democrats have a list of things we think need to be done.”
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., added that he wants to implement a ban on weapons including the AR-15-style rifle used by the Florida shooter and the Sig Sauer MCX used in the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. “The Fix NICS bill is not nearly enough,” he said.
“We don’t want some window dressing,” Nelson said. “We want to move to some substantial accomplishments to get at this problem.”
It would be nearly impossible to clear a bill banning any kind of firearm in the GOP-led Congress.
But Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said lawmakers might consider a bill to ban bump stocks, which are devices that can accelerate shooting and were used in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre. President Trump has ordered the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate the devices, but some in Congress believe they must be banned through legislation.
“There seems to be a lot of consensus on this bump stock issue,” Thune said. “Most of our members are looking at this and saying it’s our job that whatever we do, it’s effective, not do something symbolic.”
Republican Senators spent the bulk of their Tuesday caucus lunch meeting discussing school safety, lawmakers said.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., endorsed quick passage of the Fix NICS legislation and said there are bipartisan differences on broader gun control provisions “that continually snag every effort.” The Cornyn-Murphy bill, McConnell said, has bipartisan support and at least shows “some progress.”
Cornyn said the GOP would allow lawmakers to vote on amendments to the bill if they would just agree to quickly begin debate, which requires all senators to agree.
“Let’s get started with that base bill,” Cornyn said. “If people want to offer other amendments, then maybe we can set up a situation where they can vote on those amendments. As long as we get an outcome that leaves us something other than empty handed.”
While Democrats are pushing for more, it was a Republican, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who blocked work on the bill Monday when it was called up. Lee and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., are working with Cornyn on adding language to fix due-process problems that have plagued the NICS system.
As of Tuesday, the timing on any gun debate was unclear, but lawmakers were still hopeful something could happen this week. Thune said Democrats must decide whether they are willing to reach a time agreement on debate and the number of amendments with the GOP.
“I think it could be processed this week,” Thune said. “It’s really, in my view, kind of in their court. I don’t think they know exactly what they want to do yet.”
