Republicans are also expected to put their own versions of gun control bills on the table, reports Politico.
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Democrats renewed their call to action after Sen.
Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) – who couldn’t eat, go to the bathroom, or sit down the entire time – ended the filibuster at 2:11 a.m. local time when Senate Republicans agreed to at least take a vote on gun control laws.
“Listen, I’m still hopeful that we can get a compromise, that we can get something that Republicans and Democrats can support”, Murphy said.
“Do you know what the Republican proposal – Cornyn’s proposal – says?” asked Chuck Schumer of NY at a press conference Thursday. “These are people bound by brutality, and their numbers are growing”.
The votes Monday would be a rarity in the Senate, where Republicans have blocked gun control measures for many years.
Late on Wednesday Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said negotiations “were little more than a smokescreen by Republicans trying to give themselves political cover while they continue to march in lock-step with the NRA’s extreme positions”. But he chastised Democrats for their 15-hour floor speeches on the subject, calling it a “campaign talk-a-thon”.
“Our responsibility in the senate is to make a choice: work on serious solutions to prevent terrorist attacks, or use the Senate as a campaign studio”, McConnell said. Prosecutors would have to persuade a judge to block the transaction permanently, a bar Democrats and gun control activists say is too high.
Pressure is increasing on Congress to act in the wake of Sunday’s attack in Orlando, Florida, in which Omar Mateen, who was once on an Federal Bureau of Investigation watch list, killed 49 people in a gay nightclub and wounded dozens. But the two sides mostly talked past each other, and efforts to forge consensus quickly sputtered out. “Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why that makes sense”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined the gun debate, announcing on Wednesday he would meet with the National Rifle Association, the country’s most powerful gun lobby, to talk about barring people who are on terrorism watch lists from buying guns. “Nobody wants terrorists to have firearms”, he said.
A similar scenario played out on the Senate floor in December following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people. Even after the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings of schoolchildren, the Senate could not pass a bipartisan background checks bill.
Feinstein is seeking a revote on her bill. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s infamous nursery rhyme filibuster in 2013 to protest the Affordable Care Act was the fourth longest. Sen.
Democrats have been angling for votes on a measure written by Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, forced a vote on a series of amendments that will take place as early as Monday. “This is about saying that if you are on the terrorist watch list, you shouldn’t buy a gun – period, stop”.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose proposal would allow the U.S. attorney general to stop any terrorist suspect from acquiring a gun, told reporters the gun control votes would likely be held on Tuesday.
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Senate Democrats claimed a small victory early on Thursday, forcing the USA upper house to consider legislation to help keep guns out of the hands of terrorism suspects. Instead the House passed a bundle of previously approved counterterrorism bills and sent them to the Senate again.
