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| Photo Credit: Reuters. |
10 Republican Senators are so far supporting the bipartisan gun bill intended to address the surge in school mass shootings and other gun violence in other public places such as mall where a record number of persons have been killed in recent times. On Sunday a bipartisan group of senators announced a deal on a framework legislation to limit access to guns for people with history of mental illness.
The proposed legislation includes funding for school safety
resources, strengthened background checks for buyers under s the age of 21,
incentives for states to implement their own red flag laws, penalties for straw
purchases of firearms and increased protections for domestic violence victims,
The Hill reports.
The bipartisan group consists of about 20 senators including
10 Republican lawmakers. Most of the GOP senators are political allies of the
powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) and strong supporters of gun rights,
according to The Hill.
The support by these staunch conservatives who are favorably
disposed to the preservation of gun rights is an indication of how the GOP has
become deeply concerned by the increased spate of shootings by some persons
whose mental status is questionable. Their support will help the Democrats to
overcome the 60 vote threshold needed to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
According to The Hill, some of the Senate Republicans
backing the bipartisan gun reform legislation are as follows.
1. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Cornyn was among the initial group of nine
lawmakers who began discussing gun legislation after the mass shooting at a
Uvalde, Texas, elementary school last month that left 19 students and two
teachers dead.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
appointed Cornyn as the GOP’s lead negotiator in the talks.
“The tragedies in Uvalde and elsewhere cried out for
action,” Cornyn said in a tweet Sunday amid news of the bipartisan
deal, The Hill reported.
“I worked closely with my colleagues to find an agreement to
protect our communities from violence while also protecting law-abiding Texans’
right to bear arms.”
Cornyn, who has an “A-plus” rating from the NRA, had
previously offered assurances that he would not support any legislation that
restricted gun rights.
2. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)
Tillis also played an early role in the gun
violence negotiations. He said he was not willing to support raising the age
limit of purchasing AR-15–style rifles to 21 years of age, which is high on the
Democratic wish list.
Shortly after the Uvalde shooting, Tillis warned against
blaming mass shootings on the proliferation of guns in America.
“It’s horrible. And you know what we need to avoid is the
reflexive reaction we have to say this could all be solved by not having guns
in anyone’s hands,” he said, The Hill quoted CNN.
“We can always talk about reasonable measures, but we also
have to talk about better situational awareness. I’m almost certain that in the
coming days or weeks, we’re going to find out that there were signs that this
person was at risk.”
3. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
Blunt, who is retiring from his Senate seat at the end of
this year, worked with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on mental health
provisions in the framework package, such as national funding for mental health
clinics that will provide 24/7 mental health crisis responses among other
services.
“We want to be sure that mental health care is not only
available, but that we are encouraging people to seek care without the fear of
stigmatization. This bipartisan proposal builds on the progress we have made
and ensures community-based access points to care will be available over the
long term,” Blunt said in a statement on Sunday, according to The Hill.
“It will help keep people safe while protecting the
constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, and I urge our colleagues to
give it their full consideration.”
4. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
Portman recently told NBC affiliate WFMJ-TV that
keeping firearms away from dangerous individuals and implementing safety
measures at schools were his focuses in the talks.
“We have the opportunity to do something [addressing mental
and behavioral health] that we should be doing anyway,” he said, according to
The Hill.
Portman also noted he doesn’t want to infringe on citizens who
abide by gun laws. He also expressed interest in making juvenile records more
accessible in systems used to prevent dangerous individuals from obtaining
firearms.
5. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
Burr, who is also retiring this year, has received nearly $7
million in donations from the NRA, according to data from Brady
United, placing him second among GOP senators behind Sen. Mitt
Romney (R-Utah), The Hill reported.
Asked about Democratic gun control proposals following the
Uvalde shooting, Burr didn’t say specifically what he opposed or supported.
“If somebody’s got a solution to this, by all means, let’s
talk about it,” The Hill quoted Burr to have said. “But nobody’s proposed
that they’ve got one.”
6. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)
Romney, who received more than $13.5 million in donations
from the NRA, said in a tweet after the Uvalde shooting that “we must find
answers” to the issue.
In a statement on Sunday, he said, “Families deserve to
feel safe and secure in their communities,” according to The Hill
“Proud to join my colleagues on this commonsense, bipartisan
proposal that will save lives while also protecting the constitutional rights
of law-abiding Americans. It deserves broad support.”
Romney has regularly opposed Democratic-proposed
gun control measures, though he said in 2018 that he was open to considering
“more effective background checks.”
7. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)
Cassidy said he was open to discussion on gun reform
legislation in the aftermath of the Uvalde school massacre.
Among the initial group of nine lawmakers, Cassidy suggested
that red flag laws and expanded background checks were not the right solution
to the problem.
“Senator Cassidy will always be an advocate for law-abiding
citizens’ Second Amendment rights,” Cassidy’s spokesperson Ty Bofferding said
in a statement to the Daily Advertiser last month, The Hill reported.
“Cassidy is open to conversations about solutions that will
actually work to prevent these kinds of mass shootings. Unfortunately, expanded
background checks or red flag laws, as Democrats are proposing as a solution,
would not have prevented the tragedy in Texas.”
8. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Collins previously said she would like to see red flag
laws, which have already been enacted in her state of Maine, be part of the
bipartisan proposal.
“I believe that we should look at enacting a red flag law
based on the one we have in Maine, which has due process rights and involves a
medical professional in the decision,” she said last month, The Hill reported.
“I don’t know the details of the shooter, but it’s hard to believe he wasn’t
mentally ill.”
Collins also expressed her support for creating a process
for keeping firearms away from those who suffer from mental health issues.
“I really think our focus should be on looking at what the
states have done, what some states have done on red flag or yellow flag laws,”
she added.
9. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Graham has suggested that retired and former military
members should provide armed security at schools, joining a chorus of GOP
voices calling to “harden” schools against threats.
“I will be working to create a certification process that
allows former military members to go through school security training and
become available to school districts throughout the country,” Graham said
in a Twitter thread last month, according to The Hill.
“It is time to mobilize our retired and former service
members who are willing to help secure our schools. Our schools are soft
targets,” Graham added. “They contain our most valuable possession — our
children, the future of our country — and must be protected.”
10. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
McConnell says House’s Supreme Court security bill can’t
pass Senate.
Toomey recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that
he wants to ensure background checks on all firearm sales.
“I certainly remain committed to the idea of the principle
of the policy of expanding background checks to cover all commercial sales,”
Toomey said last month, according to The Hill. “I would also point out that
even though we fell short, I think it’s the only measure that had bipartisan
support — probably the only one, or one of the few, that would have it now.”
According to The Hill, Toomey first introduced an expanded
background check legislation alongside Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in 2013 in
response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, but the bill failed to
reach the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The bipartisan deal is coming following the mass shooting at
an Uvalde Elementary School in Texas after a gunman barricaded himself in two
adjoining classrooms and killed about 19 school pupils and two of their
teachers drawing outrage from most Americans who had in the past expressed
support for gun right as enshrined in the Second Amendment.