Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Sunday that bipartisan negotiations on legislation in response to multiple mass shootings in recent weeks are progressing but may not include sweeping reform on gun laws.
Murphy told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that the Senate was “not going to do everything I want” but said that lawmakers were making progress toward “modest but impactful” gun control proposals.
“We’re not going to put a piece of legislation on the table that’s going to ban assault weapons, or we’re not going to pass comprehensive background checks,” he said. “But right now, people in this country want us to make progress. They just don’t want the status quo to continue for another 30 years.”
Murphy also said the lawmakers would not pass legislation that “compromises people’s Second Amendment rights” and were instead focusing on strengthening background checks and supporting “red flag” laws that provide law enforcement the ability to temporarily confiscate firearms from people considered a threat to themselves or others.
“We’re not going to do anything that compromises the ability of a law-abiding American to be able to buy a weapon,” he said. “What we’re talking about is trying to make sure that dangerous or potentially dangerous individuals don’t have their hands on weapons.”
He pointed to Florida’s “red flag” law that raised the age to buy long guns, such as AR-15s, from 18 to 21, implemented a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, created a program to allow trained school staff to carry guns and provided $400 million for mental health and school security.
Toomey told CBS News’ Face the Nation that he was particularly hopeful that the chamber would be able to pass an expansion of background checks, noting that he and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., had long pushed for such legislation.
“We all agree that violent criminals and deranged, dangerously mentally ill people shouldn’t have firearms,” he said. “So we need a mechanism to increase the likelihood that will identify such a person and prevent them from buying a gun legally anyway.”
Murphy said he has “never been part of negotiations as serious as these, noting GOP support.
“There are more Republicans at the table talking about changing our gun laws and investing in mental health than at any time since Sandy Hook,” he said.
Murphy added that he is “sober minded” about the chances of passing legislation, citing “many failed negotiations in the past.”
“I think the possibility of success is better than ever before. But I think the consequences of failure for our entire democracy are more significant than ever,” he said.
Toomey said it was his hope that negotiators would be able to produce a deal that could draw significant support.
“My hope is we’ll get at least half the Republican conference,” he said. “You know that should be the goal here.”
In the House, a group of 21 Democratic lawmakers led by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., sent a letter to chamber leadership on Thursday urging them to break up a gun control package into eight individual bills to garner Republican support.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged Congress to pass gun legislation in the wake of mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday stating that the push “isn’t about taking away anyone’s rights, it’s about protecting children, it’s about protecting families.”
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It is certainly time to put the attention where the attention belongs and abandon the misguided hysteria. Blaming the NRA, Ted Cruz, Republicans in general, “assault weapons”, and the Second Amendment are totally off the rails and will not accomplish a single thing.
However, this goes hand-in-hand in recognizing that police reform and defunding the police are likewise not in the best interest of society as a whole. Support for the police nationwide must be reinstated as well as more accurately weeding out those in whose hands guns must not be allowed to fall.
ALL TOO often, we see more and more laws get PUSHED< but no matter how many get implemented, IT NEVER SEEMS TO STOP THESE Shootings!?
WHEN will these lunatics get it in their heads, CRIMINALS DON'T CARE what the laws say!
Under Bill Clinton there was an “assault weapons” ban in place and yet 5 school mass shootings happened under his watch and in ALL cases the guns were obtained illegally. Gun control laws DO NOT WORK!
What part of, ” Shall Not Be Infringed” do some of our elected officials in BOTH politicial parties not understand? It is perfectly understandable, nothing should be added or taken away. The gun control debate was settled in 1791. That SHOULD have been the end of the story.
THIS IS why i keep saying, ANY GOVT official, who WILLFULLY Abridges their oath to UPHOLD our constitution, like this, SHOULD GET Immediately stripped of their seat, STRIPPED of their US Citiznship, and kicked the hell out of the nation….
Unfortunately, the past is not necessarily prologue when dealing with people enthralled to illegal drugs which Biden is letting cross the border by the truckload. Background checks mean nothing once some fool tastes of the forbidden fruit of social dependency combined with entitlement which history has proven is a deadly brew indeed. You cannot legislate morality any more than you can create sane minds of self-sufficiency and responsible self-governance out of drugged minds bent on living lives of social dependency and entitlement who seek a quick “Death by Cop” when they finally realize they made some really bad life decisions by taking too much of the free cheese from the secular Democrat rats. Our Founders made Constitution redress available in the form of 2nd amendment rights to defend yourself from such people who can only survive off the life force of others. America is unique among nations of this gun right which has kept us from leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Putin and others who socially killed in the 20-30 million range while all we have to worry about is a few kids paying the price of fools on drugs, who when they become nation leaders really go to town in death counts. The American tree of liberty used to be watered periodically with the blood of it’s patriots and tyrants. Now it is our school children who had the restraining concept of a God of accountability stolen from their playbooks, and school books.