What were the proposals?
* A bill by Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to let the Justice Department bar gun sales to anyone who was on the terrorist watch list in the past five years failed on a vote of 47-53, 13 votes short of the 60 needed.* A bill offered by John Cornyn, R-Texas, failed on a vote of 53-47, seven votes short of the 60 needed. It would have allowed the government to block a gun sale for up to three days pending a court review. The government also would have to show probable cause that the prospective gun buyer was involved in terrorist activities.* A measure proposed by Chris Murphy, D-Conn., expanding background checks to the sales of firearms at gun shows and on the Internet failed 44-56, 16 votes short of the 60 needed.* A proposal sponsored by Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, failed on a vote of 53-47, seven votes short of the 60 needed. It would have increased funding for background checks and changed the language barring people with mental health issues from buying a gun.
More people will die because of the gun votes made in the United States Senate on Monday night.
A headline on ABC’s news website shortly after the votes said it all: “A Divided Senate Answers Orlando With Gridlock on Gun Curbs.”
Those votes showed us in a nutshell what is wrong with Washington. Congress – in this instance the Senate specifically – doesn’t represent the 92 percent of Americans who’ve told pollsters they wanted expanded background checks, or the 87 percent who said they support a gun ban for felons or people with mental health problems and the 85 percent who said they would ban people on federal watchlists from buying guns. (Among Republicans, that number is even higher – 90 percent say they favor preventing people on the terror watch list or “no fly” list from buying a gun, according to a new CNN/ORC poll released Monday.)
Instead, one week after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, our senators gave us one filibuster, two partisan gun control proposals, four party-line votes and zero compromises.
Democrats pushed broad legislation on background checks, along with the central proposal that would have made it tougher for terrorism suspects to buy guns.
Republicans refused to cross the bright green line National Rifle Association, which endorsed a watered-down GOP proposal. Democrats labeled the GOP proposal junk, and said they would not vote for a proposal cradled by the gun lobby.
Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, Georgia’s Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, and Alabama’s Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby all voted no to the Democratic proposals. Our states have no Democratic U.S. senators.
So the Senate deadlocked, largely along party lines, and any further gun safety action looks grim. Congress still faces a rush to finish spending bills before the November election.
“What am I going to tell 49 grieving families?” said an emotional Sen. Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, where Orlando was the scene of a hate crime and homegrown terror attack. “I am going to tell them the N.R.A. won again.”
Whether or not you like guns, these were no-brainer, common-sense gun safety votes that Americans expected their senators to be able to reach a compromise on and pass.
Shamefully, that didn’t happen.
Voters should remember in November.