House Passes Modest Gun Reform Bills Opposed By The GOP/NRA-- Senate Will Kill It
Last night, the House voted 223-204 in favor a package of gun control bills they're calling the Protecting Our Kids Act. 4 of the 5 Republicans who broke ranks with their party-- Adam Kinzinger (IL), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Chris Jacobs (NY) and Fred Upton (MI)-- to vote in favor are leaving Congress at the end of the session. The only Republican to vote for it who is staying, is the party's last remaining moderate, Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) of Bucks County. Meanwhile, two Blue Dogs joined the Republicans to repudiate the package, Jared Golden of Maine and Oregon's Kurt Schrader, who was just kicked out of office by his voters for exactly this kind of conservative posture. He was handily defeated by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner 37,476 (57.1%) to 28,112 (42.9%).
The House first voted on each of the 7 individual bills that went into the package:
Title I- raises the age from 18 to 21 in order to buy an assault weapon (228-199), 10 Republicans joining the Democrats; Golden and Schrader voting no
Title II- prohibits straw purchases for people who can't pass a background check and gun trafficking (226-197), 7 Republicans voting yes; only Golden among Democrats voting no
Title III- requires that all guns-- particularly "ghost" guns-- be traceable (226-194, 8 Republicans voting yes, again; only Golden voting no)
Title IV- safe storage provision (220-205), 3 Republicans voting yes; Golden and Wisconsin New Dem Ron Kind voting with the GOP/NRA
Title V- closes the bump stock loophole (233-194), 13 Republicans and every Democrat voting aye
Title VI- restricts large capacity (over 15 rounds) ammunition feeding devices (220-207), 4 Republicans voting yes, but 4 Democrats voting: Golden, Schrader, Kind and Henry Cuellar voting against it.
Title VII- requiring a report from the Justice Department in one year (380-47), basically just a bunch of random far right extremists voting against this, usual suspects like Scott Kelly (PA), Elise Stefanik (NY), Louie Gohmert (TX), Ronny Jackson (TX) and Patrick McHenry (NC).
Gym Jordan (R-OH) insisted that the package "takes away Second Amendment rights, God-given rights, protected by our Constitution, from law-abiding American citizens. That’s what this legislation does, and that’s why we should oppose it." He neglected to cite the chapter and verse in the Bible where God gave Republicans the right to own large capacity ammo deeding devices.
The bill will be filibustered in the Senate and will never be voted on there. Instead the senators are coming up with a fake reform bill that will do next to nothing other than give them cover so they can claim that they did something.