The White House announced Thursday that it would expand the number of such background checks by expanding the range of sellers who are subject to background checks conducted before a firearm sale. This is an inevitable workaround, a way to increase oversight of gun sales without requiring Congress to pass legislation focused on gun sales.
Because such a bill will not become law. In the wake of the 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, President Barack Obama pushed for expanded restrictions on gun purchases. A bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate but was blocked by the filibuster.
The Biden administration’s efforts to expand background checks follow legislation passed last year that was the largest expansion of gun control measures in decades. But even that bill is gradual, tweaking the rules to ensure more oversight of transactions and targeting people convicted of domestic violence or other risks. expanded the prohibition on property rights for deemed persons;
Universal background checks, in particular, have enjoyed consistent and long-standing public support. Last year, Quinnipiac University found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans support stricter gun laws, while more than 9 in 10 support universal background checks before gun sales. revealed. The majority also supported a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
But no one is saying that this public support will translate into policy, or perhaps especially Republican officials, for the simple reason that there is a vocal and energetic minority that vigorously resists new regulations. The reason is that they will fight the new regulations. Republicans have been and have been the ones blocking new gun regulations. That’s because the Americans who most fervently believe in free access to guns are overwhelmingly Republicans.
In 2013, 54 senators wanted to advance an amendment to expand background checks. Four of them were Republicans. Together, these 54 senators represent more than 60 percent of the US population. The majority of votes cast for senators went to members of the Democratic caucus. But none of it was enough to move the proposal forward.
A Washington Post ABC News poll conducted the same month found that 86 percent of Americans supported expanding background checks. Three-quarters of Americans and two-thirds of Republicans strongly supported this idea.
Opponents of expanded gun control often point to the Second Amendment, particularly recent Supreme Court decisions that strengthen the right to own guns. Of course, courts are also to blame for the current restrictions on abortion access in many states.
With a similar pattern of manifestation of minority power, Roe vs. Wade. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorses President Obama’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016. (As in 2013, Senate Republicans represented less than half of the nation.) The seat remained vacant when Donald Trump was elected president in November of that year. Ta. Although he lost the popular vote, he won the electoral vote.
Trump had promised to appoint a judge to overturn the case. eggthree judges were appointed who did just that.
Access to abortion is also widespread. The PRRI poll found that in most states, most people think abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
A Fox News poll last month found that a majority of Americans, nearly two-thirds, support passing laws protecting abortion nationwide.
That’s not likely to happen. The Senate is narrowly divided between the two parties. It is highly unlikely that enough Republicans would support codifying abortion nationwide to overcome a filibuster. After all, Republicans are more likely than most Americans to oppose such a bill, even though 4 in 10 Republicans support the idea. And that’s just the Senate. Republicans control the House of Representatives.
As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote Thursday, it’s just as difficult to affect change at the state level. In Arizona, the state Supreme Court (expanded in 2016 to include a conservative majority) ruled this week that a near-total ban on abortion dating back to 1864 should be enforceable. was lowered. In a PRRI poll last year, six in 10 Arizonans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But Republicans hold slim majorities in the state’s House and Senate and have already taken steps to block any efforts to repeal the bill. Meanwhile, in Florida, the state’s strict ban will be put to the test with a November ballot measure protecting abortion access, which would require a 60 percent majority to pass.
One of the long-standing challenges for abortion access supporters, like gun control supporters, is that voters on the other side are often more willing to vote on the issue than they are.That pattern on abortion may have broken since egg It was turned upside down. Since then, voting systems and election campaigns centered around abortion have consistently aimed for a pro-abortion stance. egg fell.
But those seeking to restrict access to abortion now have another advantage: maintaining the status quo. And, as the fight over background checks has shown, it is much harder to challenge the status quo when opponents are thwarted by the disproportionate power often vested in the Republican minority.
