'We're thrilled:' Bills to expand firearms background checks welcomed by Newtown nonprofits
'We're thrilled:' Bills to expand firearms background checks welcomed by Newtown nonprofits
NEWTOWN — Bills that would expand background checks for firearms sold online and at gun shows were welcomed Tuesday by two nonprofits that formed after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.
“This is bipartisan legislation that has the support of 97 percent of Americans, so it should pass out of Congress easily,” said Po Murray, chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance. “We’re thrilled that this bill is being introduced.”
The father of a child killed in the 2012 shooting agreed.
“[T]his bill is a necessary first legislative step to ensuring that no more families experience the excruciating pain of losing a child to gun violence,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and managing director of the homegrown nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, in a prepared statement. “[E]ight years later, we again call on every member of Congress to do their part to protect our children from gun violence: vote to pass universal background checks immediately.”
The Newtown-based trade association for the firearms industry called the bill unnecessary, unworkable and an undue burden on law-abiding gun owners.
“The firearm industry is all too aware of the pain the Newtown murders caused, but the facts are that the murderer’s first crime was stealing his own mother’s firearm before killing her and carrying out his heinous acts,” said Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “Other tragedies occurred after those murderers passed the very same background checks that this legislation would require.”
The Newtown groups were reacting to bills introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Tuesday that would require background checks by “all unlicensed sellers, whether they do business online, at gun shows, or out of their home,” with exceptions for transfers between law enforcement officers, temporary firearm loans for hunting, gifts to family, and “temporarily transferring a firearm for immediate self-defense.”
“Joe Biden and hundreds of congressional candidates from both parties ran on the issue of background checks,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, who introduced the bill in the Senate with 43 colleagues, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “I look forward to working across the aisle to get background checks legislation across the finish line.”
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, who represents Newtown and Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, hailed the companion bill in the House of Representatives, introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson.
“[T]he incredible advocates in my district and across the state of Connecticut ... have made this day possible,” Hayes said in a prepared statement. “This is not a partisan issue. This is a commonsense solution to a problem that effects every community across the country.”
Unlike two years ago, when the House passed an expanded background check bill that was blocked in the Senate by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, supporters believe prospects are strong that the bill will pass both Democrat-controlled chambers of Congress, and be signed into law by Biden.
“It should be just as simple as that,” Newtown Action Alliance’s Murray said. “This is a clean bill and the first step in a long process that is needed to pass more federal legislation to keep America safe from gun violence.”