WASHINGTON - Two U.S. senators announced a bipartisan plan Wednesday to expand background checks of gun purchasers, boosting the prospects of broader Senate legislation to curb firearm violence.
The agreement will “prevent criminals and the mentally ill from getting firearms and harming people,” Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., joined him at a news conference in Washington.
“I don’t consider criminal background checks to be gun control. It’s just common sense,” Toomey said. “It’s the people who fail a criminal or mental-health background check that we don’t want having guns.”
He said gun legislation was “not something I sought,” but that he felt it was inevitable and that he wanted to contribute to something he could support.
Toomey’s backing may help draw the support of Republicans and Democrats from pro-gun states. Manchin has an “A” rating from the pro-gun-rights National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun rights lobby. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, scheduled a procedural vote today on the gun legislation, which would crack down on firearms trafficking and increase funding for school safety.
That bill also contains a section to expand background checks, which the bipartisan proposal would amend.
The bill is a scaled-back version of a gun-safety agenda President Barack Obama outlined after 20 children and six adults were killed in a Dec. 14 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Obama’s proposals to renew a ban on assault weapons and limit the size of ammunition magazines were dropped from the bill because of a lack of support.
Obama said in a statement that while he would prefer that parts of the Manchin-Toomey plan were stronger, the agreement “does represent welcome and significant bipartisan progress.”
“We don’t have to agree on everything to know that we’ve got to do something to stem the tide of gun violence,” the president said.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the chamber’s third-ranking Republican, and several other party members said the agreement helps clear the way for a floor debate on the legislation. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a R-Ky., and 13 other lawmakers said earlier that they would try to block the measure.
“We’ll get on a bill,” said Thune, who also said Republicans will offer a number of amendments.
Even if the measure passes the Democratic-led Senate, it would face opposition in the Republican-run House.
“We’ll wait and see what the Senate does,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“There will be a lot of public pressure for the House to act” if the Senate passes bipartisan legislation, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said.
Toomey and Manchin’s plan would expand current law to require background checks for gun sales over the Internet and between private parties at gun shows. Noncommercial person-to-person firearms sales wouldn’t be covered.
“Nothing in our amendment prevents the ownership of guns by any lawful person,” Toomey said.
While Democrats wanted to require background checks for almost all gun sales, some supporters said the approach by Toomey and Manchin would be a good compromise.
“I want it as comprehensive as can be,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said. Even so, “if you took care of online sales and gun shows, it would be significant,” he said.
The agreement contains other changes to the gun bill. The original measure would have allowed someone to have weapons that would be prohibited in a state they were in by claiming they were just passing through; under the agreement, the burden would shift to the traveler to demonstrate that he was actually traveling, and the burden would not be on the government to prove it.
But the new agreement has other provisions that are in the current proposal headed for the floor. Gun sellers would be given immunity from lawsuits if a firearm they sell is used in a crime. It also would permit dealers to travel to another state and transfer guns at a gun show in the other state as long as they abide by the laws of the other state. And it would permit active-duty military members to buy guns in their home states and in states where they are based.
Toomey said it was too early to predict whether the plan would get enough votes. “It’s a fluid situation,” he said.
Manchin said in an interview that the legislation’s biggest obstacle is “paranoia.”
“People are just leery of government overreaching, and they’re just saying, ‘Do nothing,’” Manchin said. “That’s always a safe vote here in Congress.”
Manchin said he won’t support the broader Senate bill if it doesn’t include his and Toomey’s proposal. Toomey said he wanted to see which amendments were adopted before saying how he would vote on a final bill. Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk also was part of the agreement, though he didn’t attend the news conference.
In a statement, the NRA said, “Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools.”
“We need a serious and meaningful solution that addresses crime in cities like Chicago, addresses mental health deficiencies, while at the same time protecting the rights of those of us who are not a danger to anyone,” it said.
The statement stopped short of urging senators to vote against Manchin and Toomey’s proposal. The NRA, based in Fairfax, Va., claims 4 million members.
Mandatory background checks for most gun purchasers are supported by 91 percent of U.S. voters, including 96 percent of Democrats, 88 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of gun-owning households, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 27-April 1. The university surveyed 1,711 registered voters with a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
Manchin and Toomey’s plan also would mandate record keeping of the background checks. That is a Democratic proposal that also is opposed by the NRA.
Law-enforcement officials have said records are needed to ensure that the rules are followed and to help trace weapons used in crimes. The NRA has said such records could lead to a national gun registry.
Licensed U.S. firearms dealers have been keeping sales records since passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, and background checks on all U.S. commercial sales began in 1993. The creation of a national gun registry is prohibited under federal law.
The agreement was hailed in a statement by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Democrat and co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. It “shows that, even in an age of Washington gridlock, both parties can work together to reform our gun laws in a way that makes sense and keeps Americans safe,” he said.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, which tightened its gun laws in January, said improving background checks is “better than nothing, but only better than nothing.” In a radio interview, he said, “This is a Congress that is captive of the extremists, and there’s no clearer proof than this.”
At least seven Republican senators have said they wouldn’t join McConnell in trying to block floor consideration of the bill. Democrats control 55 of the 100 Senate votes, with 60 votes needed to advance the measure.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said he would vote to allow debate on the bill, said he won’t support expanding background checks. He said he is working with other Republicans on an alternative to require more records of mentally ill people entered into the nationwide background-check database.
Obama is campaigning to preserve momentum for what is left of the gun-control measures he proposed in January after the shootings in Newtown. His proposals to ban military-style semiautomatic rifles and limit ammunition-magazine capacity will be offered in the Senate as amendments, which stand little chance of adoption.
Advocacy groups and family members of gun-violence victims have sought to offset the influence of the NRA. Relatives of Newtown victims have been visiting Senate offices this week.
Sen. Christopher Murphy, a freshman Democrat from Connecticut, chose to focus his first speech on the Senate floor on gun violence Wednesday morning, taking large photos of some of the children killed in the Newtown massacre to the floor with him.
“I believe that we’re good enough to drown out the voices of the status quo and the lobbyists and political consultants,” Murphy said.
First lady Michelle Obama also entered the gun debate Wednesday by comparing herself to the honor student from her hometown shot to death a week after performing as a majorette in the presidential inaugural parade.
Obama said at a conference on youth violence that the gun regulations her husband proposed deserve a vote in Congress. But she said reducing daily gun deaths in places like Chicago, with its500 homicides last year, also will require an intensive effort by community leaders.
Obama highlighted the case of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, shot in the back Jan. 29 while hanging out with friends at a park, about a mile from the Obamas’ South Side home. Obama said the only difference between herself and the young people like Hadiya who are killed on the Chicago streets is that she had a few more advantages than some - involved adults, good schools, a supportive community and a safe neighborhood.
“That was the difference between growing up and becoming a lawyer, a mother and first lady of the United States and being shot dead at the age of 15,” Obama said.
Information for this article was contributed by Heidi Przybyla, James Rowley, Freeman Klopott, and Laura Litvan of Bloomberg News; by Jennifer Steinhauer and Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times; and by Don Babwin and Nedra Pickler of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/11/2013