A renewed debate over gun laws will take center stage in Washington on Monday, as the Senate prepares to hold rare votes on new firearm restrictions. On the same day, family members of those killed at Sandy Hook in 2012 will return to court in Connecticut, as part of a lawsuit against the maker, distributor and dealer of the AR-15-style assault rifle that was used in the elementary school massacre.
Gun control, a politically toxic issue, reared its head once more after the 12 June attack on an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 people were killed and 53 more injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Senate Democrats responded by mounting a near-15-hour filibuster, with the aim of securing votes on expanding background checks and barring suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms. Those votes are set for Monday evening.
With Republicans offering competing measures on both proposals, a breakthrough remains unlikely. None of the four amendments on offer is expected to clear the 60-vote threshold. A nearly identical vote was held in December, yielding no result. That vote was spurred by the San Bernardino shooting, in which two shooters killed 14 and injured 22 at a holiday party.
Anticipating failure, some lawmakers are looking beyond the votes and to a potential compromise on how to prevent individuals on the FBI’s terror watch list from buying guns.
Democrats would not let anyone buy a gun if their name was on the federal list. Republicans argue that thousands are on that list mistakenly, and propose enabling the justice department to delay anyone on the list from completing a purchase for 72 hours, in which time the government will have to prove to a judge that there is probable cause to stop the sale.
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said last week she was working with colleagues to find middle ground. Her proposal, which is still in its drafting stages, would focus on halting gun sales to individuals who appear on a narrower no-fly list or a “selectee” list for special screening.
“Rather than doing Groundhog Day, I think it’s time for a new approach,” Collins told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Collins is known for building bridges. On Sunday one of the most conservative members of the Senate, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, praised her as a cautious lawmaker and said he would be open to reviewing her proposal.
“She’s worked really hard to figure out the differences in various lists and what kind of proof it takes to get on that list,” Sessions told CNN’s State of the Union. “I would be willing to listen to what she said … I agree that, somehow, some way, we should be able to make this work.”
Sessions is also a top surrogate for Donald Trump, who has at least rhetorically embraced the idea of keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said on Sunday he was engaged in talks with the NRA regarding the rights of those who may not belong on the terror list.
“Maybe you can reverse it,” Trump said on Face the Nation, on CBS. “If they can’t get a gun, we work hard and diligently to get them off the list, if they indeed shouldn’t be on the list.”
The NRA has endorsed Trump, but on Sunday it distanced itself from him. In his own appearance on CBS, NRA president Wayne LaPierre said he favored the 72-hour waiting period. He also decried what he called “misinformation and poorly researched stories” on the monitoring of gun sales for people on the terror list.
Maintaining the NRA’s general stance against new gun laws, LaPierre said: “What we’re doing with this debate on the Hill right now, it’s like they’re trying to stop a freight train with a piece of Kleenex.”
‘I know that we made a difference’
The last comprehensive debate on guns occurred after the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20 children and six adults died. Despite the backing of 90% of the public, and as parents of the dead children looked on from the gallery, the Senate failed to advance a bill for universal background checks.
Now, 10 families who lost loved ones at Sandy Hook are suing Remington Arms, the company that makes the Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, as well as the distributor and dealer involved. AR-15-style assault weapons have been used in many mass shootings but in Congress even Democrats lack support for an outright ban.
The Sandy Hook lawsuit therefore focuses on a controversial federal law passed in 2005 that provided gunmakers and sellers with legal immunity. The companies named in the case will argue in court that they are protected under this law. Upon the completion of oral arguments, a Connecticut superior court judge will determine whether to proceed to trial.
Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has called for reversing the legal protections afford to gun manufacturers. She has also called for an assault weapons ban and endorsed her party’s proposals on background checks and the terror watch list.
Chris Murphy, the Connecticut senator who led the filibuster, said he remained hopeful congressional inaction could yet give way. Murphy said that on the day of the filibuster, his office received 10,000 calls from individuals in every state, in a widespread show of solidarity.
“I know that we made a difference and that we galvanized support all across this country,” Murphy said. “We’ll see where members come down.
“We’ll see if Republican members can vote with the NRA, vote against 90% of their constituents … and look the victims of gun violence and the people who care about this issue deeply in the eye and tell them that they’ve done their job.”
(Theguardian US)
