GOP senator blocks Dem's effort to push gun bill amid California shooting
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)An impromptu effort to pass a gun background check bill in the Senate unanimously was quickly nixed by a Republican senator who said it would infringe on Second Amendment rights, as news of a mass shooting at a California high school came rolling in Thursday morning. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut requested that the universal background check bill, H.R. 8, be passed by unanimous consent -- a procedural move that allows a bill to skip several steps, including debate, to pass unanimously, without senators casting an individual vote.
"We can't go 24 hours without news of another mass shooting somewhere in America. My kids and millions' others hide in corners of their classroom or in their bathrooms preparing for a mass shooting at their school, and this body does nothing about it," Murphy, who represented the constituents of Newtown in the House of Representatives at the time of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting, said on the Senate floor just before noon on Thursday. The motion was blocked by Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, who argued that the bill should not be "exempt from consideration by the appropriate committee of jurisdiction." "Legislation that would affect the rights of American citizens under the Second Amendment should not be fast tracked by the Senate," Hyde-Smith said Thursday.
"If this so-called common sense bipartisan legislation was indeed crafted with strong bipartisan input, it shouldn't have any problems advancing by regular order," she added. "Many questions about this legislation need to be answered before it's forced upon law-abiding gun owners." After Hyde-Smith's action, Murphy said, "I can't get a piece of legislation to the floor in any other way other than to offer this motion," Murphy said, citing the Republican control of the committee. "And the American public are not going to accept silence from this body week after week, month after month, in the face of this epidemic carnage that is happening across this country."
Passed in the US House of Representatives in February, H.R. 8 would require background checks on all firearm sales in the country. Currently, under federal law, only licensed gun dealers must perform background checks for anyone seeking to purchase a firearm, which leaves the sale of guns between individuals largely unregulated.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/politics/chris-murphy-cindy-hyde-smith-gun-background-check-bill-california-shooting-trnd/index.html
To be clear - this was a "unanimous consent" motion request to pass the House Background check bill, the motion being a tool that has been used many times in the past, and one that eliminates the need for debate (the Senate usually sets aside 30 hours for debate including discussion about amendments), and an enumerated vote. And of course in this case, someone from the GOP (the loon from MS) swoops in and halts it. All it takes is one objection.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)The shooter was 16....not legal with any amount of background checks to posses a handgun...in any State.....or Federally.
Don't jam bills that wouldn't-won't fix the issue at hand...defeats the larger goal....
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)The bill was crafted well before this kid did his deed. This is addressing a huge loophole that exists that needs to be closed and as noted by Murphy, it's the only way to unstick a bill from the blockages that the GOP has put in place for almost ALL bills that have come over to the Senate from the House (outside of appropriations). Turtle is sitting on a couple hundred at the moment.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)It wouldn't have stopped Sandy Hook...in Ct. Sen. Murphy's state
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)It is a LOOPHOLE that needs to be CLOSED (or at least cinched a bit tighter).
IMHO the Assault Weapons Ban needs to be put back in place too WITHOUT A SUNSET CLAUSE, but in the meantime, they are trying to get something enacted that has had "bipartisan" support.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)The AWB wouldn't have stopped the Sandy Hook slaughter.
What exactly are you trying to close that isn't already illegal?
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)of the legislation and ignoring the point. There have been who knows how many killings by those who purchased through gun shows at private vendor tables, where no background check happened. Let's start there.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)"There have been who knows how many killings by those who purchased through gun shows at private vendor tables, where no background check happened. Let's start there."
I have ZERO problem starting there.. none what so ever...let's.....can you source ANY mass-shootings to that, private vendor tables, post Columbine?
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)Then we agree and are done. This is all that bill is about. Background checks. You are making it about Murphy.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)It has to do with a dumb Bill...that does Nothing.
Where do you get I have an issue with the Senator...that's pure idiocy.
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)You can't.....about a Bill that wouldn't have done shit...yep....not the Senator....
Try.....not my 1st rodeo BumRush......try.
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)It's best you do an emoji.....don't want to strain ya....
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)The 1st AWB didn't take guns away from anyone, and the manufacturers just changed cosmetic features to get around it to sell different guns.....and will again.
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)including here in Philly, and pulled all kinds of shit out of neighborhoods where that type of weaponry didn't belong. Win-win.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)In that entire video..all 23 seconds of it... I saw 1 semi auto...looked like a 10/22..NOT a weapon of choice for school shooters.
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)I explained what they are doing here and I know you and many others have an agenda but I am not buying it.
My father was a WW2 vet and my grandfather was a WW1 vet. Both of them were hunters who would go moose hunting as well as go fly fishing here in PA (upstate), so I grew up with a rifle and a subscription to Field in Stream in my household. I don't get all googly over guns. They are not my thing.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)And will continue to say so...
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)is for Universal Background checks. Which will include taking care of the gun show loop hole. Criminals don't even bother with gun shows but those seeking a weapon who might potentially do criminal things and DO go to such a show to try to buy a gun, would have a deterrent. Even that kind of delay might help them calm down. I am guessing you are arguing to be arguing.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)I've been to 40-50 shows in probably 20+ states in the past 6-7 yrs...if a vendor sets up in a show with sales...the show sponsor has a dealer to do NICS checks.
Are there illegal sales.. in say the parking lots, or meet me down the street.....absolutely.
riversedge
(69,727 posts)At the very moment I was on the Senate floor making a motion to force a vote on universal background checks, news of the Santa Clarita shooting broke.
Republicans objected, my motion failed, and now, as a consequence, the slaughter of our children will continue.
Devastating.
Link to tweet
?s=20
Igel
(35,197 posts)Except it wouldn't.
riversedge
(69,727 posts)AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)It's already illegal for a 16yr old kid to have a handgun.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)Background bill would have done nothing..was already illegal(state and Federal) for the f'waffle to have it.
ananda
(28,783 posts)And frequently!
Toorich
(391 posts).... left is for the reThuglicans to pass a law requiring all school children to carry a gun at school.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,283 posts)No controversial bill will ever get unanimous consent. Not single-payer health care, not a national ban on abortion with no exception, not war with Denmark over Greenland.
He must have been playing some kind of game, a publicity stunt.
If a bill like this passes, it will take much debate, much arm-twisting, much compromise.
BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)that Turtle refuses to bring to the floor for consideration/amendments/debate, and a vote. Murphy did this because it was the only way to claw it out of Turtle's dungeon of 400+ OTHER House bills that have been imprisoned by him and lie dormant.
AncientGeezer
(2,146 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)would be to remove the federal ban on private sellers using the NICS background checks.
The problem is NOT that private sellers are allowed to skip background checks.
The problem IS that private sellers are federally prohibited from doing background checks.