House Democrats Advance Gun Control Package From Judiciary Committee

What’s the story?

• The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a package of eight gun control bills favored by Democrats that will likely be considered on the House floor next week. The hybrid hearing was held on short notice, as the House is in the final days of a two-week recess. 
• Democrats used their 25-19 majority on the committee to advance the gun control package, known as the Protecting Our Kids Act, on a 25-19 vote that went strictly along party-lines.
• The Protecting Our Kids Act is much broader than the red flag legislation that the House is expected to consider separately next week. It’s also different from the bipartisan efforts in the Senate to draft a compromise gun control bill that could be capable of getting the 60 votes needed to overcome the legislative filibuster.
• While the Protecting Our Kids Act may have enough support to pass the House as a broad package or split up into standalone bills, as several Democrats have requested, it’s unlikely to get sufficient bipartisan support in the Senate. Here’s a look at the various components of the Protecting Our Kids Act, which includes eight individual bills:

What’s in the package?

• The Raise the Age Act would restrict the transfer of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns to individuals under the age of 21, as they can currently be obtained under federal law by 18 year olds. Full-time law enforcement personnel and active-duty members of the Armed Forces under the age of 21 would be exempt from this restriction. 
• The Prevent Gun Trafficking Act would establish new federal criminal offenses for gun trafficking and related activities. A violation would be punishable by a fine, a prison term of up to 10 years, or both. 
• The Untraceable Firearms Act would require that all firearms and components which can be used to assemble a firearm have a serial number engraved or cast to allow it to be traced.
• Ethan’s Law would establish a framework for firearm storage regulations at the federal, state, and tribal levels. At the federal level, it would establish statutory requirements for firearms to be safely stored if a minor is likely to gain access without permission or if a resident is ineligible to possess a firearm. Violations would be subject to criminal penalties, and an improperly stored firearm would be subject to seizure and forfeiture. 
• The Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act would require firearms on residential premises to be safely stored if a minor is reasonably likely to gain access without permission and a minor obtains the firearm and uses it in a crime or causes injury or death to themselves or another individual. 
• The Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act would impose the same policies as the two bills above, in addition to more specific requirements for firearm storage: It would require firearms and ammunition to be secured, unloaded, and separated in a safe and locked with a trigger lock; or stored off the premises at a storage facility or gun range. Individuals who violate those requirements could be subject to criminal penalties if the violation results in the discharge of the firearm, civil penalties if it doesn’t result in a discharge, and the Dept. of Justice could seize their firearms and ammunition.
• The Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act would allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFs) to regulate “bump stocks” which accelerate the rate of fire of a semi-automatic weapon in the same manner as a machine gun. (Sales of bump stocks are currently prohibited by federal regulation.) 
• The Keep Americans Safe Act would criminalize the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device (LCAFD). It would define an “LCAFD” as any magazine, drum, or other feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Grandfathered LCAFD could continue to be possessed, and there would be exceptions for current and retired law enforcement officers, and for those tasked with securing nuclear materials.

What they’re saying

• Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) used his opening statement to chronicle some of the mass shootings in recent decades and urge support for Democrats’ gun control bill:

“You say it’s too soon to take action, that we are politicizing these tragedies to enact new policies. It has been 23 years since Columbine. 15 years since Virginia Tech. 10 years since Sandy Hook. 7 years since Charleston. 4 years since Parkland and Santa Fe and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It has been 3 years since El Paso. It has been a week since we learned again that gun violence any of our children and grandchildren at any time and that no number of armed guards can guarantee their safety. It has not even been 24 hours since the last mass shooting, and who knows how long until the next one. Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?”

• Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in his opening statement, “No one wants another tragedy” and criticized Democrats for not working to put forward bipartisan proposals. He added: 

“The bill before us is short-sighted and not solutions oriented. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that punishes law abiding citizens while doing nothing to make our community safer. We all want to keep children safe in school. But this bill wouldn’t do that. This bill is just another Democrat attack on the Second Amendment, and it’s likely just the start. President Biden has said he wants to ban all nine-millimeter handguns. Where does it end? The American people expect and deserve more from us than political charades that rehash old ideas and don’t actually solve the underlying problems.”

• Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) said that Democrats will do everything they can to end the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and expand the Supreme Court if necessary to enact gun control proposals:

“You will not stop us from passing it in the House next week, and you will not stop us there. If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it. We will not rest until we’ve taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities.”

• Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) criticized Democrats’ proposals and said Jones’s remarks were “outrageous” and “very revealing”:

“Mr. Jones said several minutes ago that we Democrats are seeking to abolish the filibuster and expand and pack the Supreme Court. ‘We’ll do anything necessary,’ he said, and now we know what this is about. On Monday, President Joe Biden looked into a camera and said that he wants to ban 9mm handguns. This is one of the most widely purchased and used handguns by the law-abiding citizens of this country. In 2018, retired liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the Second Amendment, and in recent days liberals in Hollywood and even Capitol Hill have started to echo that drumbeat once again.”

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / MariuszBlach)