Schumer Vows Action to Overhaul U.S. Gun Laws: 'The Senate Is Not Going to Hide'

Senate Democrats say they are pushing toward a vote on expanded gun control measures as the nation reels from its second mass shooting in a week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Tuesday to bring to the Senate floor legislation passed by the House that would require background checks for most gun sales and transfers. "Make no mistake, the Senate legislative graveyard is over," Schumer told reporters.

He said the Senate must "confront the devastating, unrelenting epidemic of gun violence that steals thousands of innocent lives across this country," after a lack of congressional action on the issue for almost three decades.

But prospects for any major reform are dim, for now, in the closely divided Congress.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on proposals for gun control Tuesday, a day after a shooting at a crowded Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, killed 10 people, including a police officer.

It is unclear whether any of the bills up for consideration — most of them involving more restrictive background checks — would have made a difference in that case. A 21-year-old man charged with killing eight people in the Atlanta area last week had purchased a 9 mm handgun hours before the murders, prompting advocates to push for longer waiting periods for purchases.

Reality may be more complicated. It remains unclear whether Senate Democrats can find deep enough support among Republicans to pass new gun control legislation in the 50-50 Senate, as they would need 60 votes to do so. While expanding background checks is generally popular with the American public, even with some conservatives, Congress has been unable to find a successful compromise on guns in decades, making it one of the most intractable issues in American politics.

Democrats say they feel the environment around gun legislation is different now, especially since the last major push in 2013, when they tried to pass new laws after the horrific Sandy Hook shooting. They point to troubles at the National Rifle Association, the long-powerful advocacy group that poured tens of millions of dollars into electing Donald Trump in 2016. The organization has been weakened by infighting as well as legal tangles over its finances.

Democrats are hoping there is a gradual political shift among voters as well. A Pew Research Center poll in September 2019 showed a wide majority of Americans, 88%, supported making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, which is what the House-passed bill would do. Ninety-three percent of Democrats and 82% of Republicans were in favor of the policy.

And in Tuesday's hearing, which was scheduled before the Colorado shooting, Republicans showed no signs of wavering. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that every time there is a shooting, the Senate engages in "ridiculous theater," with Democrats proposing laws that he said could take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Republicans have argued that background checks would not stop most mass shootings and would prevent some lawful gun owners from purchasing firearms.

Later, Committee chairman Senator Dick Durbin denounced Cruz's comments saying the hearing was not theater, but "dead serious."

Legislation passed by the House two weeks ago would close loopholes to ensure background checks are extended to private and online sales that often go undetected, including at gun shows. The legislation includes limited exceptions allowing transfers of firearms that are gifts from family, that are to prevent imminent harm or that are for use at a target range, among others.

A second bill would extend a review period for background checks from three to 10 days. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., introduced the legislation after a shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015. The FBI said afterward that a background check examiner never saw the shooter's previous arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records, and the gun dealer was legally permitted to complete the transaction after three days.

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