The 10-8 partisan vote Tuesday morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a universal background check for gun purchases may portend trouble when the measure comes up in the full Senate. It depends on whether Republicans are willing to filibuster against a proposal that the vast majority of Americans have shown in poll after poll that they favor. Choosing to take a stand against the proposal may be something at least a handful of Republican senators are not willing to do, even if approving it brings the wrath of the National Rifle Association to bear against them when they next run for reelection. The committee also passed, on a 14-4 vote, a Department of Justice program that provides grants to school security programs.
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York had worked with three other senators for weeks negotiating changes in a proposal to extend federal background checks to private sales of firearms. Only transfers to family members would be exempt. Currently, the checks are only mandated for sales handled through federally licensed dealers. The lack of universal coverage, gun-control advocates say, weakens the effectiveness of the background check law because it allows anyone prohibited from buying guns as a consequence of felony convictions or mental health adjudications to acquire them from private sellers over the backyard fence, out of the trunk of a car or at a gun show. Read more about the negotiations below the fold.
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