Monday’s Senate votes that blocked four gun control proposals may not be the end of the debate this week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pledged to hold votes on other gun-related proposals offered by Republican lawmakers, according to GOP aides.
His promise comes as Democrats continue to hammer the Republicans over the lack of movement on gun control in Congress, which their party believes is partly to blame for a string of mass shootings, including last week’s terrorist attack in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
In addition to pressure from Democrats, some Republicans who are facing tough re-election fights are also interested in continuing to work on the issue, just months before voters head to the polls.
“The Republicans are now indeed scrambling,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Monday night after Republicans blocked two gun control measures authored by Democrats that most GOP senators said was far too restrictive. Also Monday night, Democrats blocked two GOP gun control measures they believed were too weak.
Democrats cited polls that show Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of both gun control measures and a law that would prevent terror suspects from purchasing firearms. “I don’t think democracy allows this Congress to be so out of step with the American public for very long,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
For now, however, it’s Senate Republicans that will decide which GOP amendments might get a vote.
As of Monday night, there were no specific plans for a vote, GOP leadership aides told the Washington Examiner. But among the possibilities is language Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, will introduce Tuesday that would ban people on the FBI’s no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., is also working on a compromise proposal to prevent terror suspects from purchasing guns. Toomey has not yet introduced his measure but said he is working with gun rights groups to draft the language.
Both Democrats and Republicans said they are eager to strike a compromise, particularly the lawmakers running tough re-election campaigns in swing states, like Toomey and Ayotte, who is in a close race with her Democratic competitor, Gov. Maggie Hassan.
“If you are too dangerous to board a plane, it stands to reason you should not be able to buy a gun,” Ayotte said Monday. “There is a solution here, and I’m committed to finding it, but to find that solution, we need to come together. Instead of having competing proposals that have mostly failed, let’s put aside the gamesmanship and come together to find a proposal that will be effective and bring results to the American people.”
It’s not clear any Republican proposal will have enough votes to advance in the Senate. Republicans and Democrats last week agreed to hold the four votes after a dramatic Democratic filibuster.
But the outcome of the votes was predictable, as most Republicans voted against the two Democratic plans, and most Democrats did the same to the two GOP plans. The result left many on Twitter blasting the vote series as a procedural waste of time, and left both parties stuck without any obvious way to bridge the difference.
