Senate compromise would increase some gun rights

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/04/15/senate-gun-amendments/2085133/

 

Senate compromise would increase some gun rights

Gregory Korte, USA TODAY10:26 p.m. EDT April 15, 2013

Gun owners are "giving an inch to get a mile," one gun rights group says.

U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. appear together on "Face the Nation" Sunday. This week the Senate will vote on their bipartisan proposal to expand background checks on gun sales. (Photo by Mary Calvert/CBS News via Getty Images)(Photo: Mary Calvert/CBS News via Getty Images)

Story Highlights

• The Manchin-Toomey amendment allows interstate sales and protects owners driving across state lines
• Gun rights group says it's "giving up an inch to get a mile"
• Gun control advocates want broader background checks but say amendment improves the current law

WASHINGTON -- The compromise background check provisions the Senate will begin debating Tuesday closes the gun show "loophole," but also expands some gun rights. Activists on both sides of the gun debate say they see things to like in the measure.

The 49-page amendment by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., allows for interstate firearm sales, precludes states from enforcing local gun laws when gun owners are transporting guns across state lines, and imposes a 15-year prison term for any government official who keeps gun ownership records.

Gun rights activist Alan Gottlieb said that in this amendment, the gun lobby is "giving up an inch to get a mile."

"The bill gives us a lot of things we've been fighting for in Congress that I haven't been able to achieve in years," said Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The group, which calls itself the "common sense gun lobby," had input into the drafting of the amendment, as did the National Rifle Association. The NRA opposes the Manchin-Toomey amendment, calling it "misguided."

The amendment also allows state concealed carry permits to be used in place of a federal background check, allows active-duty military to buy guns in their home states, and speeds up sales by reducing the turnaround time for background checks.

The Manchin-Toomey deal helped to break a threatened filibuster of the gun bill last week, allowing the Senate to take it up beginning Tuesday and possibly continuing for weeks.

It closes the "loopholes" for gun shows and Internet sales, but stops short of the universal background checks contained in the original bill -- proposed by President Obama and supported by 83% of Americans in a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll.

"Our assessment is at the end of the day is that this something that will do more good than bad, and it will save lives," said Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which includes religious groups, doctors and public health organizations. "This is not a universal background check bill, and that's unfortunate."

For example, the bill would exempt gun sales -- such as flea markets -- with less than 75 guns. It would maintain a friends and family exemption and other unadvertised "word of mouth" sales.

One key provision that both sides support: Beefing up the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to include mental health records and other convictions missing from the current database. Manchin said the bill uses a "carrot-and-stick" approach, spending $400 million over four years to upgrade the system, but withholding federal funds from states that don't improve their data. It is not clear where the funding for this provision would come from.

The amendment is the first of what could be dozens of amendments to the gun bill, from both sides of the aisle. As of Monday, only five amendments had been formally introduced. The other four are:

• The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and two co-sponsors) increases the maximum penalty for "straw buying" a firearm from a federally licensed dealer — that is, buying a gun for someone else to evade a background check — to 15 years. It also bans the transfer of guns to someone the seller knows is prohibited from owning firearms, and makes it a crime to smuggle firearms out of the United States.

• The Assault Weapons Ban (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and 22 co-sponsors) prohibits the sale, transfer and importation of assault rifles, including 157 specifically mentioned in the law. The definition is broader than the ban in place from 1994 to 2004 but grandfathers current lawful owners of assault weapons.

• The Large-Capacity Magazine Feeding Devices Amendment (Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. and 21 co-sponsors) bans magazines and other devices holding more than 10 rounds. It exempts .22 caliber rifles, and ownership by current and former police officers for on- or off-duty use.

• The No Firearms for Foreign Felons Act (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and three co-sponsors) expands the offenses that disqualify someone from purchasing a firearm to include felony convictions in foreign courts. But there's an exception if the convict can show a denial of due process or that the offense would not have been illegal in the United States.