WASHINGTON — A Minnesota Senate committee followed its federal counterparts last week when it signed off on a bill expanding background checks, but trying to figure out its fortunes is a murky task.
The fate of national gun violence bills is a little clearer. Gun trafficking laws are likely to be strengthened. School safety grants could very well be increased. Reform supporters think universal background checks have a pathway forward. And an assault weapons ban has, by all indications, gone about as far as it can.
Violence prevention advocates had thought the December school shooting in Newtown, Conn., would have served as a grim last straw in the fight to pass new gun violence legislation on both the state and federal level. Where Democrats control the whole of state government, like New York and Colorado, lawmakers have enacted such measures.
But with divided government in Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week was only able to pass two non-controversial bills (on gun trafficking and school safety grants) with wide bipartisan support before political divisions forced party-line votes on expanded background checks and an assault weapon ban.
Heather Martens, the executive director of Protect Minnesota, said there had been a hope in the anti-gun community that moderate Republicans could have compromised with Democrats on large violence prevention bills in Washington. The prognosis for such bipartisan cooperation was never great, with Republicans and conservative Democrats mostly opposed to stricter gun control measures, but now Martens is left hoping Congress is able to work something out on background checks, at least.
“I am hoping to see at least background checks passed,” she said. “For heaven’s sake, background checks before a gun sale is a no brainer. I would certainly hope they pass something like that.”
Detailing Republican arguments
A Senate panel was able to push expanded background checks and an assault weapons ban to the floor, but if identical 10-8 party-line votes are harbingers of things to come, both bills, in their current forms, are doomed in the Senate at large not to mention in the House, where the GOP is in the majority.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chief Republican on the Judiciary Committee, used the votes to preview Republican opposition to the bills. Grassley said he doubts expanded background checks would be effective without a national gun registry, something gun rights advocates oppose on principle. He said the bill’s language is too broad and could hinder the ability of gun owners to even handle others’ guns.
An assault weapons ban, Grassley said earlier this month, may run afoul of recent Supreme Court decisions on the Second Amendment. That position is so strongly held by such a sizable segment of Congress that even Democratic leaders have said the bill isn’t going anywhere.
There is some hope that lawmakers may split the assault weapons ban into two bills, one banning guns and the other, high-capacity magazines. And either way, Senate leadership has promised to at least hold a vote on the bill, though it’s yet to be scheduled. But for it to pass a procedural hurdle, all 55 Democrats must vote for the bill (which is unlikely), and get at least five Republicans to join them (which, all indications suggest, is nearly impossible).
Sen. Al Franken, who voted for both bills, said Thursday that passing the assault weapons ban looks like a “very difficult, uphill climb.”
Supporters still hopeful for background checks
However, Franken said he anticipates a potential compromise on background checks.
Democrats tried to find a Republican to co-sponsor the legislation passed by the Judiciary Committee last week, but were unable to do so (the New York Times summarizes here). It’s still possible compromise legislation might eventually crop up.
“My job isn’t to be a prognosticator,” Franken said. “What I do is I vote the way I believe, and I will do that.”
Martens said her group has been looking to build momentum for background check legislation on the state side and pointed to polling that suggested broad public support for such laws (a three-state poll in January found more than 90 percent of respondents support such measures). She’s also mindful of the fact that even getting these bills to the floor is a historic event, one that probably wouldn’t have happened if not for the outcry brought about by the shooting in Newtown.
“I think that there’s been a change in how people view this problem,” she said. “I think what perhaps the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting did is brought it home for a lot of people, including legislators, who thought maybe gun violence was someone else’s problem. It’s very disturbing that that was done, but I think that after the Newtown shooting, they just couldn’t dismiss it anymore.”
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry