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House Passes Second Gun Background Check Bill in as Many Days

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Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords joins Bay Area Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, for a news conference to introduce legislation to expand background checks on Jan. 8, 2019. The bill passed on Feb. 27.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Democratic-led House approved another piece of legislation to broaden federal gun-control legislation Thursday. The bill gives the FBI more time to do background checks on gun purchasers. It comes a day after the chamber passed a bill extending the checks to private firearms sales, which advocates call the most significant gun control measure in more than two decades.

Both measures face long odds at becoming law.

The vote on the first bill, dubbed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, passed largely along party lines 240-190, with Democrats who control the House cheering as they carried the legislation across the finish line.

At a press conference ahead of its passage, the bill’s sponsor, Bay Area Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, called it a “historic time,” adding that expanded background checks would “help save lives.” Thompson highlighted the difficulty of getting a gun control vote during the previous eight years, when the chamber was controlled by a Republican majority.

“We were not able to get a single hearing or have a single vote in the House under the last majority. It’s a new day,” Thompson said.

The second bill, approved on Thursday, would extend the time sellers that have to wait before completing a gun sale. Like Wednesday’s measure, it passed largely along party lines — 228-198.

Thursday’s bill seeks to close the “Charleston loophole” that allowed an avowed white supremacist to buy a gun used to kill nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston. S.C., in 2015.

Currently, a gun seller has to wait three business days for federal investigators to conduct a background check. Most checks are quick, but incomplete data can sometimes cause a delayed response. If the delay lasts more than three business days, the gun sale can move forward.

The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 expands the background check period to 10 days, with the potential to be extended another 10.

Critics of the current system say the Charleston shooter would have been barred from obtaining the gun had investigators had more time to dig into his record and discovered his drug arrest.

But gun rights groups point out that the shooter had the gun for two months before he committed his crime. They say that was more than enough time for the authorities to complete the check and order the confiscation of his newly purchased gun.

An internal FBI review and a federal court judge have criticized the background checkers in that case for failing to follow up in their inquiries.

As NPR reported in 2017, the shooter has been convicted and sentenced to death.

Speaking before the final passage, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the House Majority Whip, acknowledged the widow and daughters of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of those victims in the 2015 massacre, seated in the House Chamber.

He added by the time authorities discovered the shooter should have been ineligible to have the gun, “it was too late.”

“As a result those poor souls lost their lives,” Clyburn said. “Let’s give the FBI, let’s give the authorities enough time to do their jobs. We’ll save lives.”

Most House Republicans did not support the legislation, including Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.

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He said increasing the waiting time for someone to get a gun could put victims of abuse or people seeking to defend their families in more danger.

“This bill will empower abusers and violent predators by making their victims more vulnerable,” Collins said. “It will do nothing to make our communities safer, but it will make it harder for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

An amendment to give federal background checkers access to a larger criminal database called the National Data Exchange failed to get enough support, and was withdrawn. Proponents of the idea say it would make up for information gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

However, as its name suggests, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 did garner modest GOP support, even attracting five Republican co-sponsors. Yet, in the end, only eight Republicans crossed party lines to support the bill.

In a statement, John Feinblatt, president of the anti-gun violence group Everytown for Gun Safety, praised lawmakers for “stepping up.”

“We applaud Speaker Pelosi and the bipartisan coalition of House members who supported this bill for stepping up and doing their part to close the giant — and deadly — loopholes in America’s background checks law.”

House Democrats hope the swift passage of the companion bills will put pressure on the Senate to act. The National Rifle Association opposes the legislation, and it faces major headwinds in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In the unlikely event the Senate approves the measure, the White House has already signaled the president would veto the bill, should it reach his desk.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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