Posted on 10/07/2015 5:49:27 PM PDT by TroutStalker
Senate Democrats will begin a campaign to combat gun violence on Thursday as party leaders prepare to unveil a sweeping package of legislation that builds on their failed 2013 attempt to require universal background checks for gun purchases, according to senators and aides.
The goal is to have the entire caucus, minus perhaps one centrist Democrat, backing a legislative package aimed at preventing guns from ending up in the hands of the wrong people.
In addition to background checks, Democrats are aiming to add new money for the Justice Department’s existing background checks system that has recently faltered and include provisions to prevent domestic abusers from buying guns, sources familiar with the package said. The measure is also expected to include a proposal from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) intended to cut down on gun trafficking, sources said.
The package, which will be discussed at a Thursday press conference but is unlikely to be officially introduced this week, also aims to ensure that all key records are sent to a federal database and would make straw purchasing a federal crime.
“We want to solve the problem and not just talk. So we’re putting forward something that’s solid and is supported by 90 percent of the American people,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a leading advocate for stricter gun laws. “The critics of the Congress are right: We’re not doing enough to protect against gun violence, so we’re stepping up to show that we can do it.”
The proposal is not likely to get a vote under the reign of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), but Democrats say the package is intended to show that Democrats are serious about reducing gun deaths but can’t make headway in a Republican Senate. Republicans, led by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, are pitching changes to the U.S. mental health system as a preferred way to deal with mass shootings.
Democratic leaders are wary that their rank-and-file could defect and begin supporting the Cornyn bill, which is backed by the National Rifle Association and is not viewed by Democrats as an effective way to combat day-to-day gun violence in big cities like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and St. Louis.
“I sense almost a seismic shift in public reaction. It may just be the aftermath of the Oregon shooting but I really do think it will happen,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), referring to the massacre at a community college in Roseburg, Ore., last week. “That point will come. And it may not be everything we want but there will be steps toward gun violence protection.”
Senate Democrats are rallying around three key points: Closing loopholes in the current background checks system, toughening up background checks in general, and shutting down the illegal pipeline of guns.
"All three of these principles would bolster the background check system by strengthening it and stopping those who try to evade it," according to a Dear Colleague letter obtained by POLITICO from Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who lead the Senate Democrats' policy and messaging arm. "These principles will be a rallying point for a public that is eager for Congressional action, and will be the basis for future legislation that we will demand receive a vote."
Democratic leaders are wary of making the kinds of compromises they did during a 2013 effort to combat gun violence, only to see that measure fall in the face of bipartisan opposition. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid won’t be able to attend the press conference on Thursday morning on the East Front of the Capitol (he is attending a funeral for a former staffer), but he wrote his caucus on Wednesday to urge a strong turnout among Senate Democrats.
“It is within our power to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings. Inaction is not an option,” Reid wrote in a separate Dear Colleague letter obtained by POLITICO. “We will again introduce a series of proposals to prevent those who should not have access to a gun from getting one.”
Democrats said that all their members except for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are expected to ultimately back the effort. Heitkamp said in an interview she wasn’t familiar with what her colleagues were planning but hasn’t changed her stance since 2013.
“We’ll look at it but I made my position pretty clear on background checks and I don’t plan on changing it,” Heitkamp said.
Heitkamp did support cracking down on straw purchases — where one person buys a firearm for someone else in order to evade gun laws — and gun trafficking in 2013, despite opposing the background checks legislation alongside three other centrist Democrats, all of whom are no longer in the Senate. Another conservative Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, still supports the background checks proposal he devised alongside Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in 2013, but was not yet familiar with the new, larger package, an aide said. Hillary Clinton comes out against Obama's trade deal
What’s not clear is whether any Republicans would support the measure or if it would be a purely partisan political exercise. McConnell said on Tuesday that he’d “be taking a look” at Cornyn’s suggestion but aides declined to speculate on any imminent action on the issue. Toomey said in a brief interview that he’s "pursuing all options” to combat gun deaths.
But Toomey, one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the Senate, has not yet reintroduced his proposal with Manchin -- which Democrats view as an opportunity. Now that they are taking the lead, they hope to coax out positions from GOP senators up for reelection, putting them on the defensive as gun violence across the country continues. In addition to Toomey, Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine supported the 2013 background checks legislation; Kirk and McCain are also up for reelection next year.
Democratic sources said they are unlikely to offer their package as an amendment to unrelated legislation, instead pushing Republicans to either have a wide open gun debate or risk continued Democratic attacks. Republican aides declined to comment on legislation that has not been introduced.
Nonthing in what they are purposing will curb “gun violence”. Period.
Notice not a word about ending plea deals or mandatory minimums for sentences?
Criminals are coddled while they try to make the law-abiding.
Time to shop for lowers.....again.
they keep putting forward this kind of unconstitutional BS
which, even if it were lawful in America to adopt such provisions, almost nobody would comply with anyway
what a crock!
BTTT
Who was it that said “From my cold, dead hands?”
I ditto that sentiment.
My state law says f**K the gungrabbing feds. Being a supporter of states rights, I say f**k the gungrabbing feds.
Rove and his money-men, thankfully, still permit elected Republicans to oppose gun control. This won’t go anywhere. Nothing like Amnesty.
Ban gun sales to the Godless Democrats.
I wonder if they will include severe penalties for Federal Departments or Agencies personnel performing gun running?
The Cornyn gun bill is crap, too. Not only does it needlessly add bureaucracy and restrictions where there should be none, it also fails to make the connection between liberalism and crime. If the nicest thing people say about your bill is that it’s not as bad as Bolshevista Boxer’s, you should probably kill your bill.
If we want to reduce or end crime, we have to get rid of America’s liberals. That is the only solution.
Who are the right people who get to have guns if you are a progressive democrat? Just aksin? I mean if it’s so legislatively easy to form a construct of who shouldn’t be able to buy and posess a firearm, then equally so who should. Right?
She's a lying whore. Background checks for new gun purchases and applications for concealed carry are through the roof.
Now, maybe her constituents, the fags and rat filth in her district, well, maybe they agree with her.
How about we start with:
All persons that can be classified as a “public employee” that has made any deliberate false statement of any kind, shall be a Prohibited Person.
The Dems can drop anything they want in the hopper and it will disappear into the void known as Committee. Even the GOP isn’t stupid enough to go along with gun control not at this point.
Otherwise, and with one exception which I will mention shortly, I don’t see anywhere in the Constitution where the states have constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to regulate INTRAstate arms for civilians (corrections welcome). And given FDR’s reputation for ignoring the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers, I find it disturbing that federal gun laws regulating civilian arms seem to have started appearing in the books while he was president.
Franklin Roosevelt: The Father of Gun Control
And let’s not let the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Senate off the hook regarding gun rights. The low-information, FDR-era Senate shouldn’t have helped to pass restrictive civilian gun control laws without the constitutional authority to do so.
To the contrary, regarding the one exception to federal constitutional authority to make laws regulating intrastate civilian arms, consider the following irony. Not only does Section 1 of the 14th Amendment (14A) prohibit the states from abridging constitutionally enumerated rights like 2nd Amendment, but Section 5 of 14A gives Congress the power to only to make laws which strengthen such rights, not weaken them.
The ill-conceived 17th Amendment needs to disappear, and corrupt senators who help to pass unconstitutional gun control bills along with it.
Universal background checks won’t stop murders with guns but that is not what they are meant to do. They are meant to populate a nationwide database of guns and owners. Then they will institute random checks and if what you have doesn’t match the database they will seize all your guns and destroy them and then send you to jail.
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