House Democrats on Tuesday will introduce a bipartisan bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, following on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Day One pledge to tackle gun violence.
The legislation will expand background checks for guns bought online and at gun shows, but it excludes “reasonable exceptions” for gun transfers among family members. It will be introduced on the anniversary of the Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that left former Rep. Gabby Giffords seriously wounded.
Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who resigned her House seat after the shooting, will participate in the unveiling of the measure, Pelosi announced.
“Our Democratic majority will press relentlessly for bipartisan progress to end the epidemic of gun violence on our streets, in our schools, and in our places of worship,” Pelosi said. “Enough is enough.”
Democrats have placed gun control at the top of their legislative agenda.
“We will make our communities safer and keep our sacred promise to the victims, survivors, and families of gun violence by passing common-sense bipartisan background check legislation,” Pelosi said in her speech to the House last Thursday, the first day of the 116th Congress.
The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Pete King, R-N.Y. It stops far short of legislation many Democrats have called for that would outlaw certain assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines, a signal Democrats may hope to actually pass the legislation into law.
A Quinnipiac University poll last year found public support for universal background checks favored by a 97-2 margin.
The bill includes a clause prohibiting the creation of a federal gun registry staunchly opposed by pro-gun advocates.
The House, now controlled by Democrats, is poised to easily pass the measure in the coming weeks, but Senate consideration remains uncertain because conservative Republicans are expected to vigorously oppose it.
It garnered more than two dozen GOP co-sponsors when introduced in the 115th Congress in 2017, but some of those Republican lawmakers are no longer in office.
Pro-gun groups argue the background check system is flawed and snags people over similarities between names and dates of birth, depriving many law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment right to purchase guns.
“The NRA opposes this legislation because it does not address the real problems of fixing the broken mental health system and prosecuting criminals. Further, criminals will never submit to such a system so it will never truly be “‘universal,’” NRA officials said when Thompson first introduced his proposal in 2015.
[Also read: Guns used in Las Vegas massacre may be sold to raise cash for victims’ families]
