Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
“New York would require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their ‘character and conduct’ under a bill being considered Friday by the state Legislature,” the AP reports.
“The provision was part of a proposed redesign of the state’s firearms licensing laws hammered out by lawmakers after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down rules severely limiting who could get a permit to carry a handgun outside their home.”
“President Joe Biden signed into law the most sweeping legislation aimed at preventing gun violence in 30 years at the White House on Saturday shortly before departing for Europe for a series of meetings with world leaders,” NBC News reports.
“Congress gave final approval on Friday to a bipartisan compromise intended to stop dangerous people from accessing firearms, ending nearly three decades of congressional inaction over how to counter gun violence and toughen the nation’s gun laws,” the New York Times reports.
“The House approved the measure 234 to 193 one month to the day after a gunman stormed into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and used a semiautomatic rifle to kill 19 children and two teachers, sparking outrage across the country and a flurry of negotiations on Capitol Hill. The measure now heads to President Biden, who is expected to sign it.”
Punchbowl News: “The House will take the 80-page package this morning. The Rules Committee, which sets the parameters for floor debate, has scheduled a meeting for 7 a.m. Based on our estimates, this should put final passage around noon.”
“Democrats have a 220-210 margin in the House, meaning they can lose four votes and still pass the bill.”
For the first time publicly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) explained why he backed the bipartisan gun bill, Politico reports.
Said McConnell: “We’ve lost ground in suburban areas. We pretty much own rural and small-town America. And I think this is a sensible solution to the problem before us, which is school safety and mental health. I hope it will be viewed favorably by voters in the suburbs that we need to regain in order to hopefully be in the majority next year.”
“The Senate approved bipartisan legislation on Thursday aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, after a small group of Republicans joined Democrats to break through their party’s longstanding blockade of gun safety measures and shatter nearly three decades of congressional paralysis on toughening the nation’s gun laws,” the New York Times reports.
“It would enhance background checks for prospective gun buyers ages 18 to 21, requiring for the first time that juvenile records, including mental health records beginning at age 16, be vetted for potentially disqualifying material. The bill would provide incentives for states to pass ‘red flag’ laws that allow guns to be temporarily confiscated from people deemed by a judge to be too dangerous to possess them. And it would tighten a federal ban on domestic abusers buying firearms, and strengthen laws against straw purchasing and trafficking of guns.”
A new Gallup poll finds that 66% of Americans “want laws covering the sale of firearms to be stricter — up 14 percentage points from October, and the highest since after the Parkland high school shooting in 2018.”
“A record-high 55% of Americans have an appetite for not only enforcing existing gun laws more strictly but also passing new gun legislation. This is only the second time since 2000 that a majority favors passing new gun legislation in addition to enforcing current laws more strictly.”
John Avlon notes that even in the mythical gun-loving wild west, sheriffs wouldn’t allow guns into town.
“The Supreme Court struck down New York state’s system for issuing concealed weapons permits, ruling that the century-old law requiring that applicants demonstrate ‘proper cause’ and ‘good moral character’ violates the Second Amendment,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
New York Times: “The ruling was only the court’s second major statement on the scope of the individual constitutional right to keep and bear arms and its first on how the right applies to firearms in public places. The decision has far-reaching implications, particularly in cities that had sought to address gun crimes by putting restrictions on who can carry them.”
NBC New York: “Supreme Court decisions in 2008 and 2010 established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defense. The question the court confronted is about the right to carry a gun outside the home.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) got into an argument with a British reporter about gun violence in the United States:
REPORTER: We don’t have guns in the U.K., that is true, but we don’t have mass shootings, either. Children aren’t scared to go to school.
GREENE: You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder. And you’ve got laws against that.
REPORTER: Nothing like the same rates here.
GREENE: Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns. We like ours here.
Playbook: “GOP announcements of opposition to the Senate gun bill are tumbling out of Congress. The latest to declare that he will vote against it is Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Scott, of course, is not just the junior senator from Florida; he’s also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.”
“In the wake of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Scott signed a bill that has some similarities to what’s been drafted in the Senate. But it’s not similar enough, according to Scott. So once again, on a major national policy issue, Scott is parting ways with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who supports the gun bill.”
Politico: “Faced with a chorus of boos and a rebuke from the Texas GOP over the weekend, Cornyn got a taste of what the reaction could be on the right for Republicans who vote for the Senate’s bill designed to curb mass shootings in America. What’s more, on Monday evening the NRA announced opposition to the package crafted by a quartet of senators that includes Cornyn, whose A+ rating from the gun group is probably about to take a downgrade.”
“But becoming the face of the gun safety deal is a risk worth taking for the fourth-term Republican after a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers in his state.”
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise told House Republicans during a closed-door conference meeting that they will oppose the agreement, which a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators unveiled Tuesday night,” Politico reports.
“The Senate on Tuesday cleared the first hurdle to passing a bipartisan measure aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, agreeing to take up a compromise bill whose enactment would break a yearslong stalemate over federal legislation to address gun violence,” the New York Times reports.
“While the bill falls short of the sweeping gun control measures Democrats have long demanded, its approval would amount to the most significant action in decades to overhaul the nation’s gun laws. The 64-to-34 vote came just hours after Republicans and Democrats released the text of the legislation, and after days of feverish negotiations to hammer out its details.”
Punchbowl News: “This is the first significant gun control bill to have a real chance of becoming law in nearly three decades. And it signals the extraordinary pressure Congress is under to respond to the horrific wave of gun violence plaguing the nation.”
“A bipartisan group of senators overcame some last-minute hurdles and released legislative text Tuesday on a narrow set of provisions to combat gun violence, including state funding to implement ‘red flag’ laws and enhanced background checks,” NBC News reports.
“A tentative deal in the Senate that would toughen federal gun laws and provide billions of dollars in new money to prevent future mass shootings moved closer to reality Tuesday after negotiators settled key disagreements that had delayed the drafting of a bill, putting it on a glide path to be passed into law by the end of the month,” the Washington Post reports.
“The breakthrough came more than a week after 20 senators — 10 from each party — signed on to a framework agreement that coupled modest new gun restrictions with as much as $20 billion of new federal funding for mental health programs and school security upgrades.”
“The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Virginia man who is seeking to challenge one of his convictions for using a firearm in an attempted robbery,” CNN reports.
“In a 7-2 decision Tuesday, the court decided that a conviction for attempted robbery under the federal Hobbs Act does not fit the definition of a ‘crime of violence,’ and therefore does not trigger an enhanced sentence when a firearm is used.”
Punchbowl News: “The bipartisan group of senators working on a gun-control bill – led by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) – is expected to file the legislative text today. They were expected to file it Monday, however, so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
“Senate Democratic leaders are hoping to pass the bill this week, before the Senate leaves town for a planned two-week recess. Without any time agreements to speed up the process, a final vote could slide into the weekend. So the sooner this gets filed, the better for supporters of the bill.”
Washington Post: Negotiators expected to release gun bill text today.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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