Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., denounced congressional Republicans Tuesday as “the legislative wing of the NRA” after the Senate voted down two Democratic-proposed gun control amendments Monday night.
“Republicans won’t even agree to keep guns away from terrorists,” Reid said Tuesday morning on the Senate floor. “The Republican Congress has been so thoroughly indoctrinated, that it’s now become the legislative wing of the NRA.”
Senate Republicans and Democrats have been fighting about how to respond to the Orlando terrorist attacks since last week, when Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., launched a talking filibuster to demand a vote on legislation to ban weapons sales to individuals on the terror watch list. Republicans, and civil liberties advocates such as the ACLU, oppose that idea for fear that it would result in innocent Americans losing their rights without a fair trial.
Lawmakers agreed to vote on four separate amendments — two offered by Republicans, two by Democrats. They all failed on Monday, but members of both parties were able to say that they voted to stop terrorists from getting weapons while respecting due process rights.
Democratic party campaign teams jumped on the votes. “After last night’s failure to pass common-sense gun laws, it’s clear: We must elect Democrats,” was the message from the party’s official twitter account.
Murphy was even sharper. “We’ve got to make this clear, constant case that Republicans have decided to sell weapons to ISIS,” the Connecticut Democrat said Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brushed off that attack when he opened the Senate floor Tuesday morning.
“[Republicans] put forward a serious proposal to prevent known or suspected terrorists from being able to buy a gun and Democrats voted against it,” he said. “Now does that mean Democrats have decided to sell weapons to ISIL? Of course not … we all agree that the Obama administration must prevent the sale of guns to terrorists. Disagreeing on how best to do that does not require amateur claims that we all know to be false.”
