The Senate this week will take up a series of gun control bills that have all failed in similar form in the past, but have been given new life following the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla.
While Democrats hope public support for more gun control in the wake of the latest shooting will provide momentum for their legislation, their proposals are likely to be blocked by Republicans and stand little chance of consideration in the GOP-led House.
Republicans, similarly, have failed to win approval for alternatives to Democratic gun control proposals, because Democrats believe the GOP measures are too weak.
Significant gun legislation has failed to gain any real traction in more than two decades, thanks to bipartisan opposition.
Democrats are nonetheless hoping the Orlando shooting, in which 50 were killed, including the shooter, and more than 50 injured, has created new political impetus for advancing their long-stalled gun control agenda.
“The circumstances are going to force them to see the light instead of bowing in obedience to the NRA, whose views are extreme,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the No. 3 Senate Democrat.
Democrats have revived a measure, last considered in December 2015, that would prohibit anyone on the federal terrorism watch list from purchasing a gun or explosives.
Republicans and one Democrat voted in December to block the legislation, authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. It failed thanks to heavy opposition from gun-rights groups who believe such a law would infringe on the constitutional right to gun ownership.
Opponents of the Feinstein measure note the secretive watch list is notoriously error-prone and has swept in thousands of people who have no ties to terror and no way to get off the list.
Republicans in December put an alternative measure on the floor, authored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would impose a 72-hour delay for anyone on the terror watch list who tries to purchase a gun. Democrats blocked the GOP measure because it would require the federal government to prove the gun purchase could lead to a terrorist act.
This week, Republicans plan to put the Cornyn measure on the floor for consideration once again when they take up the Feinstein proposal. It’s likely to be blocked again by Democrats.
Lawmakers will also vote on a measure authored by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to expand background checks to include gun shows and online purchases as well legislation sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, aimed at improving federal record sharing.
By late Monday, the Feinstein, Cornyn, Murphy and Grassley measures are likely to be added to a long list of gun control measures introduced in Congress over more than two decades that have gone nowhere.
Sept. 13, 1994, marked the last time significant gun control legislation became law.
That’s when then-President Bill Clinton signed a ban on certain semi-automatic guns and large capacity ammunition magazines.
The law included a 10-year sunset and expired in 2004.
Democrats have tried several times to pass legislation to renew the ban, but their efforts have stalled due to opposition in both the Republican Party and among Democrats from pro-gun states.
Democrats made no moves to pass gun control legislation while they controlled the majorities in the House and Senate between 2006-2010.
But they renewed their push for a ban on assault-style weapons and ammunition in 2013 in the wake of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., which killed 20 children and six adults.
Feinstein introduced a bill in the Senate that would ban 157 types of assault-style weapons and gun clips, but Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stripped the language from the bill because it lacked bipartisan support. Reid instead shifted the focus to passing expanded background checks for gun purchases.
At the time, Democrats controlled 55 votes in the Senate but many lawmakers were facing tough 2014 re-election bids.
Reid said Feinstein’s measure, “using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes.”
The Senate in April 2013 ended up voting separately on a series of measures, including Feinstein’s ban on certain assault-style weapons and magazine clips and a provision expanding background checks for certain gun purchases. The Senate also considered language imposing new penalties on gun traffickers.
Thanks to Republican opposition, all of the measures failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance, and the legislation died.
