Senate shoots down first of four gun measures

Donovan Slack, USA TODAY
6:07 p.m. EDT June 20, 2016


(Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)


WASHINGTON — The Senate voted down the first of four gun measures scheduled for a vote Monday, an amendment proposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that calls for research on the causes of mass shootings and increases funding for the background check system.

Democrats opposed the legislation because it does not expand the types of gun sales that require background checks, and they said some provisions could make it easier for mentally ill individuals to buy guns.

A total of 53 senators voted in favor of the bill, but under Senate rules, it required 60 votes to survive.

The other three measures slated for votes Monday also were expected to fail, including legislation expanding background checks and banning gun sales to suspected terrorists.

Ahead of the votes, the chamber's Democratic and Republican leaders offered no indication that any of the measures will get the bipartisan support needed to advance.

The Senate voted down similar bills in December after the shooting rampage in San Bernardino, Calif. With the current party split in the Senate, any successful bid to toughen gun laws would need bipartisan support to get to the 60-vote threshold. There are 54 Republicans and 46 Democrats and Independents who caucus with them.



Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested Monday that Democrats are simply using the issue as a political talking point and said the two GOP-backed measures sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are "real solutions."

"No one wants a terrorist to be able to buy guns or explosives. No one," McConnell said. "Instead of using this as an opportunity to push a partisan agenda or craft the next 30-second campaign ad, colleagues like Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Grassley are pursuing real solutions that can help keep Americans safer from the threat of terrorism."

Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the Republican measures "political stunts" and said they are "meaningless in doing something to stop gun violence."

"These are amendments to divert attention from real legislation," Reid said. "Why? So Republicans (can) say 'Hey, look, we tried,' and all the time their cheerleaders, their bosses at the NRA, are cheering."

Democrats say the GOP is out of step with the American people, pointing to polls that show a majority want stricter gun laws. An NBC News/Survey Monkey online poll conducted after the Orlando massacre last week found 61% of those surveyed support stricter gun laws; 38% opposed them. The survey also found 60% support a ban on "assault weapons" and 38% oppose it.

A Monmouth University telephone poll released Monday had a tighter margin, with 52% supporting such a ban and 43% opposing it.

Omar Mateen had legally purchased a semi-automatic assault rifle and handgun before launching the rampage at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead and 53 injured.

The Senate did not schedule a vote on an assault weapons ban Monday. The four measures scheduled for votes were proposed amendments to legislation funding the Commerce and Justice Departments for the next fiscal year.

After Grassley's amendment failed, Senators were scheduled to move on to an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., which would expand background check requirements to include private sales and sales over the internet.

The third vote scheduled was on an amendment sponsored by Cornyn that would allow federal law enforcement officials to delay gun sales to suspected terrorists, including those on watch and no-fly lists, for three days and then halt the sales, but only after proving probable cause before a judge.

The final vote scheduled was on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would allow the attorney general to halt sales to suspected terrorists and allow individuals to appeal to the Department of Justice if they are denied a firearm.



Republicans said they oppose the Feinstein measure because they say it does not provide enough due process for individuals wrongly barred from buying guns.

“Tonight Senate will vote on 2 bills to keep guns out of terrorists hands, but only one — the Cornyn bill — complies with the Constitution,” Cornyn tweeted Monday.

Republicans also have said expanding background checks would not do anything to prevent mass shootings. They said criminals will get guns anyway, for example by having others buy them for them.

Even if all the measures fail as expected, getting votes in the first place is something Democrats and gun-control advocates have touted as a step forward. It took six years and seven votes before the last comprehensive control legislation, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, passed in 1994.

Ahead of the votes Monday, gun violence survivors made the rounds on Capitol Hill trying to persuade senators to vote for stricter laws, including Erica Lafferty, daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung who was slain in 2012, and Colin Goddard, who was shot four times and survived the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H, who is locked in a tough re-election battle, took to the Senate floor before the votes Monday and appealed to her colleagues to come together to find a compromise.

She said she has been working with fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina on a bill that would ban gun sales to the roughly 900 Americans on the no-fly list, a smaller number than the thousands on watch lists covered under Feinstein’s proposal.

“There is a solution here and I’m committed to finding it, but to find that solution we have to come together instead of having competing proposals that have already mostly failed in this chamber when we took these votes back in December,” she said. “Let’s put aside the gamesmanship and come together to get a proposal that will be effective and get a result for the American people.”

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