After several hours of speeches on the floor of the House (it’s hard to call most of what I heard an actual “debate”), the votes on H.R. 7910 began, with each component receiving a separate vote. The first measure, raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles, was approved along a mostly party-line vote of 228-199. The second vote, on establishing a federal trafficking statute and expanding the federal laws prohibiting straw purchases, was approved by a similar 226-197 vote.
On and on it went, with roughly the same margins on all of the votes cast. Thirteen Republicans crossed over and voted in favor of a ban on bump stocks, which was the measure that received the most bipartisan support, but the vote on banning and “buying back” magazines that can hold more than 10-rounds of ammunition received just four votes from GOP members and saw an equal number of Democrats in opposition.
While the House package may have won approval, it’s going to be ignored by the other chamber, at least until we see if the Senate can reach any sort of agreement on their own. If not, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already indicated he’ll proceed with votes on the full Democratic wish list of gun control legislation.
Well, most of the wish list, anyway. Even Nancy Pelosi doesn’t appear ready to hold a vote on Joe Biden’s proposed ban and “buyback” of the more than 20-million modern sporting rifles that are currently in the hands of legal gun owners. That wasn’t included in the omnibus gun control bill approved by the House Wednesday evening, and it’s not scheduled for as much as a committee hearing in the House at the moment. H.R. 7910, however, could very well be brought to the floor of the Senate, even though it’s an open question as to whether it would get the support of the entire Democratic caucus. Joe Manchin has signaled that he’s once again open to a ban on AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles, and has given his thumbs up to raising the age to purchase a modern sporting rifle to 21, but given that those are only two parts of the eight-part gun control legislation, if Manchin wants to find something to object to in order to withhold his vote he can.
On the issue of an under-21 gun ban, Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, pointed out during his floor speech that, according to the Department of Justice, just .3 percent of 18-20-year olds commit a violent crime in any given year, and .013 percent of adults under 21 are charged with a homicide. Those figures include crimes committed with and without a firearm, by the way. As Steube correctly wondered, why would anybody think that restricting the rights of 99.7% of young adults is going to stop the other .3% from committing a crime, or that it would be the most effective or constitutionally sound way to do so?
Like the rest of the gun control debate taking place on Capitol Hill, it’s not about what could be effective, but what might be politically possible. Sadly, after watching the House debate on Wednesday, I’m convinced that the actual effectiveness of any of these proposals is a secondary consideration at best for most of the proponents of these House measures. Instead, most of the speeches that I heard sounded like soundbites for upcoming campaign ads, which is also one of the main reasons why Democrats opted to hold separate votes each new restriction on legal gun owners that they want to put in place.
House Democrats struggled to get ten of their Republican colleagues to go along with their adventures in anti-gun extremism, which makes these measures a non-starter in the Senate, but it’s still an open question about the number of Republicans who might be willing to agree to a package that’s far more limited in size and scope. In fact, I don’t think every GOP senator has made up their mind, and the contacts from constituents over the next few days could very well sway them to one side or the other. Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Loomis, for instance, mentioned on Tuesday that she’s been surprised by the number of calls from Wyoming residents who are “receptive… to address guns in some manner.” Loomis said that she’s still of the opinion that this is more a mental health issue than a gun control issue, but added that she’s “listening to what people from Wyoming are saying.”
If Loomis is listening, I guarantee other senators are too, and I’d encourage you to reach out and let your senators know where you stand, especially once the details of any “compromise” package have been released.
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