After the rollout of a bipartisan Senate proposal for universal background checks, Washington is inching closer to an agreement on gun policy reform.
The proposal was authored by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) — both of whom have “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association — and is one of the first bipartisan deals with momentum in the months following the Newtown, Conn., shooting. The senators announced the results of their negotiations, which will be added as an amendment to a broader gun-control bill, last week. The Senate voted to move forward with debate on gun control on Thursday.
The amendment would expand background checks to prevent people with criminal records and serious mental health problems from purchasing guns.
“It is already illegal for them to own guns,” Toomey wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed on Sunday. “The background check system is merely a tool to help enforce the law and protect the public.”
The proposal has received endorsements from groups as disparate as the pro-gun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns. However, background checks alone may not prevent much of the gun violence that occurs in Philadelphia.
There were 331 murders in Philadelphia in 2012, and over 85 percent of them were committed with a gun, according to Philadelphia Police Department statistics. All of those guns were obtained illegally, according to Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, many of them through so-called “straw purchases.”
“Guns are legally purchased by people who are stand-ins for folks who want to resell guns on the street to people who can’t pass background checks,” Bryan Miller, the director of a group that advocates against illegal firearm sales, said in a January interview. “There’s a very highly developed, highly efficient distribution system” from gun shops to street sales, he added.
Still, the proposal would close several loopholes that gun-control advocates have decried as easily exploitable — including a lack of background checks at gun shows and purchases made on the internet. The larger bill would also increase penalties for straw purchases.
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While the proposal has some bipartisan support — attracting the praises of Republican Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) — its fate is still largely up in the air.
“I think it’s an open question as to whether or not we have the votes. I think it’s going to be close,” Toomey said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” More Republicans will need to throw their weight behind the measure to compensate for red-state Democrats who will not support what groups such as the NRA have called a violation of Second Amendment rights.
However, Manchin, the measure’s co-author, was confident that once senators read the measure, it will have enough support to pass. The fact that Toomey, who up until now has been a staunch advocate for gun rights, is so closely linked with the proposal may also sway some moderate Republicans to support it.
Analysts have said the move may benefit Toomey when he’s up for re-election in 2016 in Pennsylvania, a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president for six election cycles.
“Pat believes in this. He believes it’s the right thing,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told The Inquirer. Rendell consulted with Toomey leading up to last week’s announcement. “It’s also a very wise political decision,” Rendell said.
