It’s been nearly three decades since major gun control legislation was signed into law, and Democrats are determined to use their new majority in Congress to push through two measures that would broaden and enhance the nation’s background check system.
The House on Thursday passed a pair of bills that would expand background checks and provide more time for law enforcement to conduct them ahead of firearm purchases.
The measures now head to the Senate, where the newly empowered Democratic majority plans to call them up for a vote in the coming weeks.
“The legislative graveyard is over,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters. “H.R. 8 will be on the floor of the Senate, and we will see where everybody stands.”
H.R. 8 is legislation that would broaden background checks by making it illegal to transfer a firearm to another person without a background check performed by a licensed dealer.
Schumer said the legislation is needed to close “loopholes” in the 1994 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which established a federal requirement for background checks on firearm purchases.
Schumer was an author of the 1994 legislation and said that at the time, lawmakers did not envision internet gun purchases. Bill authors also left background checks for firearm purchases at gun shows.
The bill passed on Thursday would mandate background checks for gun shows and internet purchases and adds most gun transfers.
It passed with nearly unanimous Democratic support.
Only eight Republicans supported the bill, but it was enough for Democrats to declare it a bipartisan victory that could influence the Senate.
The support of at least 10 Republicans would be needed to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for legislation.
Democrats said public approval of background checks is overwhelming and that the influence of the National Rifle Association is striking. They now see a path to passage with GOP votes that was impossible to imagine just a few years ago.
“There are a lot of Republican senators that are thinking about voting on a proposal that allows them to get right on this issue,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat.
The vast majority of Republicans, however, do not support the background check bill and oppose a second bill the House passed Thursday that would extend the time law enforcement can take to conduct background checks for firearm purchases from three days to 10 days.
They argue that it infringes on the Second Amendment right to gun ownership and punishes legal gun owners rather than targeting weaknesses in existing gun safety laws.
The legislation carves out some exceptions for family members and some transfers associated with law enforcement and the military. The bill would also exclude the background check requirement for temporary transfers of firearms “that is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”
But Republicans said it would criminalize harmless gun loans and does nothing to shore up weaknesses in the background check system that have allowed gun purchases by those who should not have access to firearms.
Extending background checks to 10 days, Republicans said, could prevent someone from quickly purchasing a gun for self-defense, potentially leaving them in danger.
“It disarms America and says to the criminal, ‘Keep on not abiding by the law,’” said Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, who added that it won’t stop criminals who get their weapons illegally. “It stops the guy who is going to get the firearm legally. This bill seeks to punish people that want to follow the law.”
If Senate Democrats can’t pass the House background check bill, it could prompt compromise talks.
Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, have proposed a bipartisan background check bill several times over the past nine years. The measure is similar to the House bill but has a broader allowance for transfers and some language expanding legal gun sales.
But Democrats may be more interested in getting rid of the 60-vote threshold in order to pass gun control and other top legislative priorities without having to negotiate with Republicans.
However, Manchin and several other centrist Democrats do not favor getting rid of the filibuster and instead want Democrats and the GOP to compromise.
“I think we can deliver,” Manchin said. “If they think it’s their way or the high way — that’s not going to happen in areas where I come from.”
