Eighty-five percent of all Americans favor universal background checks on gun sales, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center in July, while 79 percent favor laws that would stop mentally-ill people purchasing firearms.
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One week after nine people were shot and killed at Umpqua community college in Roseburg, Oregon, senators announced measures meant to improve the background check system and prevent people who are not allowed to buy guns from obtaining them illegally.
“If we’re going to protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners, then we’ve got to stand up as law-abiding gun owners”, he said, adding that Democrats had sometimes “gone way too far on things they’ve wanted to ban”, but that gun reform was “common sense”. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “The victims and their families deserve better than a Congress that shrugs its shoulders and waits for the next tragedy”.
The Senate push comes after President Barack Obama, exasperated by the shootings during his years in the White House, urged a congressional response.
I am appalled by gun violence in our country and the mass shootings in our churches and colleges.
Their proposals would prohibit sales of firearms to “all domestic abusers” and ensure that no one can buy a gun without a completed background check. They also want better enforcement of laws against gun trafficking. “We are now asking for the American people to make their voices heard”.
Similar background check legislation failed to pass the Senate in 2013 after the killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, stirred a national debate.
The vote that has especially rankled a few left-wing Democrats is Sanders’ support of the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prohibits gun violence victims from suing gun manufacturers and dealers that make and sell weapons used in crimes.
Democrats would use procedural delays to thwart legislation if Republicans refuse to allow votes on the gun proposals, a Democratic aide said Wednesday who wasn’t authorized to discuss the plans publicly and requested anonymity.
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A prominent Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, has already submitted a much more modest bill that would encourage the states to share more information about people with mental problems to be included in the federal background check database. But he told reporters Thursday that the duo is still searching for a way to grow support for the idea. After the Sandy Hook shootings he said, “If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen”.
