Democrats are using their reclaimed majority in the House to advance several gun control bills that would make it tougher to buy guns and ammunition, to mark the one-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting.
Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the shooting in Florida, which claimed the lives of 14 children at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved multiple measures for floor votes, including universal background checks for all gun sales and the majority of gun transfers. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., introduced one of them, H.R. 8, which would require all sales at expos, over the Internet or at gun shops be cleared through the government.
“There is a clear consensus among academics, public health experts and law enforcement personnel that universal background checks would greatly enhance public safety,” said Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found 97 percent of Americans support universal background checks. Five Republicans have signed onto the bill.
The committee passed a related bill that would block a potential gun buyer from getting a firearm if his or her background check cannot be completed in three days.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., pushed H.R. 1112 after Dylann Roof obtained a gun through this loophole and used it to fatally shoot nine people at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., re-introduced the Keep Americans Safe Act, or S. 447. He and co-sponsor Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said it would prevent the selling of magazines that hold 10 or more rounds each. Deutch represents the district where Parkland is located.
“Guns become doubly and triply deadly in these massacres because of these high-capacity magazines,” said co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “And so if we take one simple step in approving this prohibition, we can literally save lives. There is no more simple, straightforward way to save lives from gun violence than to ban these high-capacity magazines.”
The shooters who carried out the Las Vegas concert and Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings both used high-capacity magazines.
