USA Senate rejects seemingly commonsense gun control measures!
This post draws on the two following reports/articles:
a) Senate rejects series of gun measures, http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/20/politics/senate-gun-votes-congress/, dated June 21st 2016
b) The Senate's shame on guns: Our view (by USA Today editorial board), http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/06/20/guns-orlando-senate-background-checks-editorials-debates/86157536/, dated June 20th 2016
To pass gun control measures aimed at making it difficult for dangerous or those suspected to be dangerous by US authorities, to buy guns in the USA, a proposed measure needs 60 Senate votes to pass. Given below are some (or perhaps all) measures which were proposed recently in the USA Senate in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, and which failed to get the required votes in the Senate.
1) A Republican proposal to update background check system used during (some) gun purchases to force states to provide more mental health information, and also a provision to inform law enforcement whenever an individual who was on govt. terror watch list in the past 5 years buys a gun, got a 53-47 vote (did not touch the 60 votes needed to pass). Apparently Senate Democrats seem to have been unhappy with the mentally ill definition in the proposal not being expansive enough.
2) The proposal by Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat, who introduced a filibuster in the Senate to force consideration of gun control measures, was to expand the background check system to include gun shows and online purchases (apparently guns bought at gun shows and through online purchases do not go through a background check!!!). The proposal went down 44-56.
3) A Republican proposal to delay sale of guns to individuals on a terror watch list and which would allow a judge to decide on permanently blocking the purchase if the judge found probable cause that the individual is involved in terrorist activity, failed 53-47. [Ravi: I wonder why the Democrats did not support this proposal. Perhaps they were not satisfied with only delay in this case of potential buyers who are on terror watch list.]
4) A Democratic proposal to ban gun sales to individuals on terror watch list failed 47-53.
A new proposal is up for consideration in the near future. It is a Republican proposal by Senator Susan Collins to bar gun sales to those on the USA govt's no-fly list (smaller list than the terror watch list) but also involves some consideration for those placed wrongly on the no-fly list.
Ravi: What the above shows is that both the main political parties of the USA, the Republicans and the Democrats, seem to be interested in considering some additional measures to avoid sale of guns to wrong people. But they are not able to agree on some common ground! Politics, they say, is the art of compromise. Perhaps USA Senators need to compromise on their views on gun control measures to avoid guns going to the wrong persons, to have at least some additional measures in place in the near term. That would be better than having no additional measures.
Note that my comments above deal only with measures that prevent/reduce guns going into the hands of wrong people including those that are suspected by USA govt. authorities to be involved in wrong doing (e.g. on terror watch list). It does not touch upon other (law abiding) USA citizens' right to keep and bear arms which is enshrined in the USA constitution as its second amendment.
Please note that I am an Indian citizen living in India and have assumed an informal-student-observer role in this post.
[I thank cnn.com and usatoday.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me using their above reports from their websites as reference material for this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
a) Senate rejects series of gun measures, http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/20/politics/senate-gun-votes-congress/, dated June 21st 2016
b) The Senate's shame on guns: Our view (by USA Today editorial board), http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/06/20/guns-orlando-senate-background-checks-editorials-debates/86157536/, dated June 20th 2016
To pass gun control measures aimed at making it difficult for dangerous or those suspected to be dangerous by US authorities, to buy guns in the USA, a proposed measure needs 60 Senate votes to pass. Given below are some (or perhaps all) measures which were proposed recently in the USA Senate in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, and which failed to get the required votes in the Senate.
1) A Republican proposal to update background check system used during (some) gun purchases to force states to provide more mental health information, and also a provision to inform law enforcement whenever an individual who was on govt. terror watch list in the past 5 years buys a gun, got a 53-47 vote (did not touch the 60 votes needed to pass). Apparently Senate Democrats seem to have been unhappy with the mentally ill definition in the proposal not being expansive enough.
2) The proposal by Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat, who introduced a filibuster in the Senate to force consideration of gun control measures, was to expand the background check system to include gun shows and online purchases (apparently guns bought at gun shows and through online purchases do not go through a background check!!!). The proposal went down 44-56.
3) A Republican proposal to delay sale of guns to individuals on a terror watch list and which would allow a judge to decide on permanently blocking the purchase if the judge found probable cause that the individual is involved in terrorist activity, failed 53-47. [Ravi: I wonder why the Democrats did not support this proposal. Perhaps they were not satisfied with only delay in this case of potential buyers who are on terror watch list.]
4) A Democratic proposal to ban gun sales to individuals on terror watch list failed 47-53.
A new proposal is up for consideration in the near future. It is a Republican proposal by Senator Susan Collins to bar gun sales to those on the USA govt's no-fly list (smaller list than the terror watch list) but also involves some consideration for those placed wrongly on the no-fly list.
Ravi: What the above shows is that both the main political parties of the USA, the Republicans and the Democrats, seem to be interested in considering some additional measures to avoid sale of guns to wrong people. But they are not able to agree on some common ground! Politics, they say, is the art of compromise. Perhaps USA Senators need to compromise on their views on gun control measures to avoid guns going to the wrong persons, to have at least some additional measures in place in the near term. That would be better than having no additional measures.
Note that my comments above deal only with measures that prevent/reduce guns going into the hands of wrong people including those that are suspected by USA govt. authorities to be involved in wrong doing (e.g. on terror watch list). It does not touch upon other (law abiding) USA citizens' right to keep and bear arms which is enshrined in the USA constitution as its second amendment.
Please note that I am an Indian citizen living in India and have assumed an informal-student-observer role in this post.
[I thank cnn.com and usatoday.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me using their above reports from their websites as reference material for this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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