By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
A tentative bipartisan deal on expanded background checks has been announced by the two senators who hammered it out, but the fate of this agreement remains to be debated in the Senate.
Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.) confirmed agreement at a press conference covered by C-SPAN April 10. They also indicated that this might be the first step toward some agreement on national concealed carry reciprocity.
The background check measure that not include transactions between private citizens, unless the transaction began with on-line service or advertising.
The National Rifle Association quickly reacted to the agreement, issuing the following statement:
“Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools,” the NRA said. “While the overwhelming rejection of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg’s ‘universal’ background check agenda is a positive development, we have a broken mental health system that is not going to be fixed with more background checks at gun shows.
“The sad truth is that no background check would have prevented the tragedies in Newtown, Aurora or Tucson,” the statement continued. “We need a serious and meaningful solution that addresses crime in cities like Chicago, addresses mental health deficiencies, while at the same time protecting the rights of those of us who are not a danger to anyone. President Obama should be as committed to dealing with the gang problem that is tormenting honest people in his hometown as he is to blaming law-abiding gun owners for the acts of psychopathic murderers.”
Manchin and Toomey issued several talking points, including a few that might benefit gun show operations:
- Allows dealers to complete transactions at gun shows that take place in a state for which they are not a resident.
- Requires that if a background check at a gun show does not result in a definitive response from NICS within 48 hours, the sale may proceed. After four years, when the NICS improvements are completed, the background check would clear in 24 hours. Current law is three business days.
- Requires the FBI to give priority to finalizing background checks at gun shows over checks at store front dealerships.
- Authorizes use of a state concealed carry permit instead of a background check when purchasing a firearm from a dealer.
Family transfers and some private sales would also be exempt, the senators said.
The announcement comes as U.S. News published a Debate Club installment on the subject of background checks, featuring comments from three gun rights advocates and two people representing gun prohibitionist lobbying groups.
Included in that discussion are remarks from Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms; Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, and Erich Pratt, communications director for Gun Owners of America.
Supporting background checks are Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
Public reaction appears overwhelmingly supportive of the gun rights position.
According to the Washington Post, Sen. Charles Schumer reportedly called “key players” in the gun control debate, including anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “to inform them of the details” in advance of the Toomey-Manchin press conference.
The newspaper acknowledged that earlier negotiations between Schumer and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) had broken down over disagreement on records-keeping. It is that issue on which Gottlieb focused in his opposition piece in the U.S. News debate. He called it a de facto registration scheme.
“Under the Manchin-Toomey deal,” the Washington Post reported, “records of the newly covered transactions would be kept by federally licensed arms dealers, according to a person familiar with the agreement. Currently, licensed arms dealers keep records of gun sales that take place in gun stores.”
Debate on gun control is scheduled to begin April 11, while a threatened filibuster is reportedly beginning to lose traction. Any measure approved in the Senate will then go to the House, where it could face stiff opposition from Republicans.
The two senators also insisted that there are things their bill will not do:
- The bill will not take away anyone’s guns.
- The bill will not ban any type of firearm.
- The bill will not ban or restrict the use of any kind of bullet or any size clip or magazine.
- The bill will not create a national registry; in fact, it specifically makes it illegal to establish any such registry.
- The bill will not, in any way at all, infringe upon the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
