House Democrats just passed two gun control bills, both aimed at so-called universal background checks.
The first one passed 227-203 and prohibits private transfers without a background check:
AXIOS – The first bill (H.R. 8) became the first gun control legislation considered by Congress in nearly 25 years after it was first passed by the House in 2019, following a wave of youth-led activism in the wake of the Parkland shooting. It was never taken up by the GOP-controlled Senate.
The bill would prohibit anyone who is not a licensed firearms importer, manufacturer or dealer from transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person without a background check.
It exempts gifts from relatives and transfers for hunting, target shooting and self-defense.
In other words you can’t sell someone who isn’t in your extended family a gun without a background check. The gift exemption mentioned above reads like this:
...a transfer that is a loan or bona fide gift between spouses, between domestic partners, between parents and their children, including step-parents and their step-children, between siblings, between aunts or uncles and their nieces or nephews, or between grandparents and their grandchildren, if the transferor has no reason to believe that the transferee will use or intends to use the firearm in a crime or is prohibited from possessing firearms under State or Federal law;
The other exemptions with regard to hunting, target shooting, and self defense are TEMPORARY transfers, not permanent ones.
>>> There were eight Republicans who voted with Democrats for this bill and their names are below:
- Vern Buchanan – FL
- Brian Fitzpatrick – PA
- Andrew Garbarino – NY
- Carlos A. Giménez – FL
- Adam Kinzinger – IL
- Maria Salazar – FL
- Chris Smith – NJ
- Fred Upton – MI
Conversely, there were one Democrats who voted against this bill:
- Jared Golden – ME
The second bill passed 219-210 and lengthens the initial background check for a gun purchase to 10 days:
The second bill (H.R. 1446), introduced by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, increases the review period of the initial background check from three to 10 days.
White supremacist Dylann Roof was able to purchase a gun, despite a criminal conviction, because of a clerical error that caused the FBI’s background check to take longer than three days.
>>> The two Republicans who voted with Democrats for this bill are below:
- Brian Fitzpatrick – PA
- Chris Smith – NJ
Conversely, there were two Democrats who voted against this bill:
- Ron Kind – WI
- Jared Golden – ME
Thankfully, even if the RINOs in the Senate vote with Democrats, the filibuster still stands in their way of passing these.