It also highlighted the potency of the National Rifle Association, which was urging its huge and fiercely loyal membership to lobby senators to oppose the Democratic bills.
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Collins aims to capitalize on bipartisan agreement that the terror gap should be closed – a reform that almost every senator voted for yesterday, but one that, when considered as individual proposals, fell short of the 60 votes needed.
It was always unlikely that any of the Democrat-backed proposals would move forward, since 60 votes were needed to pass – more than the number of that party’s members in the Senate. Both measures attracted scant support outside their sponsors’ respective parties.
Even as the measure gains backers, however, it faces a tough climb.
North Dakota Republicans said they also had concerns with the proposal.
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On Monday afternoon the Senate voted down all four gun legislation measures.
Republicans blocked a similar measure a year ago.
New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte voted for the measure that would prevent terrorists from purchasing firearms. He said before the vote that he believed there was common ground between the two sides, but the Senators voted nearly entirely down party lines.
Following the rulings, Murphy told reporters the votes were proof the NRA has a “vice-like grip” on congress. “We’re going to put together a good faith proposal”.
“Our enemy is telling people to exploit these holes to kill us”, he said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., right, walks towards the Senate on Capitol Hill, Monday, June 20, 2016 in Washington. Rob Portman and Wisconsin Sen. It also would create an appeals process for those denied a gun. “Maybe, just maybe, this next election can produce something”.
Republicans said Feinstein’s proposal gave the government too much power to deny people’s constitutional right to own a gun and noted that the terrorist watch list has mistakenly included some people.
Some Democrats, including Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said Tuesday. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Tuesday afternoon that his office was still reviewing the Collins proposal.
“Congress can not continue on the path it’s on by voting on bills that don’t have a chance of actually passing”, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who supports Collins’ measure, said in a statement. Another from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., would have delayed firearms sales to people on terror watch lists and let a judge permanently bar a gun purchase by a person law enforcement had probable cause to believe was involved in terrorist activity.
Collins was trying to fashion a bipartisan bill preventing people on the government’s no-fly list from getting guns.
She added, “It’s shameful that in the wake of the deadliest shooting in our nation’s history in Orlando, the Senate still can’t take modest action to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and tighten background checks”. It would not bar the suspect from making the purchase. After each tragedy we try, we Democrats try to pass sensible gun safety measures.
Reid and New York Senator Charles Schumer argued that McConnell and other Republicans will ultimately block Collins’s bill from receiving a vote, rendering bipartisan negotiations moot. The shooter, Omar Mateen, identified himself as an Islamic soldier.
Toomey had described the two leading proposals on closing what some had described as a “terror gap” as containing flaws.
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“The likelihood of someone being on this list and buying a gun and using it for a terrorist attack, to me, is far greater than the likelihood of an innocent person being on this list”, Graham said at the news conference.
