First Gun Bill To Get Committee Vote

It looks like the first new gun bill may make it out of a senate committee on Thursday. That is the date a Senate Judiciary Committee vote is scheduled for a bill to curb illegal gun trafficking. The bill would make gun trafficking (purchasing a gun illegally for others) a federal felony crime, punishable by 15 years in prison.

The bill is a merger of a bill by Senator Leahy (D-Vermont) with a similar bill by Senator Gillibrand (D-New York) and Senator Kirk (R-Illinois). The bill will be co-sponsored by Senator Collins (R-Maine), Senator Durbin (D-Illinois), and Senator Blumenthal (D-Connecticut). This is the most bipartisan of the bills introduced so far in the Senate, and it is believed that it will be passed when it reaches the Senate floor.

This is good news for the people of Mexico, where most guns of the violent cartels are imported illegally from the United States. And hopefully, it will help to keep guns out of the hands of criminals in this country, by either deterring people from buying guns to resell to criminals or by putting those that do in prison for a long sentence.

It is doubtful that this bill will do anything to stem the tide of the many mass shootings occurring in this country though. Most of the guns, including the assault weapons, used in those mass shootings were purchased legally (even by the dangerously mentally ill).

Other gun bills are having more trouble in committee. The bill to close the loopholes in background checks (which is immensely popular with the American public) is being held up by Senator Coburn (R-Oklahoma), because he opposes the part of it that would require all gun sellers to keep a written record of any sales -- including private citizens. I think Coburn is wrong on this issue. Gun dealers are already required to keep records of sales, and there is no reason why anyone who sells something as dangerous as a gun should not be required to also keep a record of that sale.

Another gun bill, the re-imposition of a ban on the sale of assault weapons, is having even more trouble. It also has the support of a majority of Americans (although a smaller majority the the background checks bill), and has already survived a constitutional challenge in the past. But it is not popular with our elected representatives (many of whom are still scared of the NRA), and it will have a hard time getting approved.