House Approves Measure to Expand Firearm Background Checks

[IceWizard]

A worker restocks handguns at Davidson Defense in
Orem, Utah, on March 20, 2020.
(George Frey/AFP via Getty Images)


BY JACK PHILLIPS
March 11, 2021
Updated: March 11, 2021





House Approves Measure to Expand
Firearm Background Checks


The House of Representatives approved a measure on March 11 that expands background
checks on individuals who are seeking to purchase or transfer firearms as top Democrats
have vowed to reintroduce gun control measures.

“This bill is a critical step toward preventing gun violence and saving lives,” said Rep.
Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who sponsored the measure known as H.R. 8.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced a companion bill in the upper chamber.

The bill, titled the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, passed 227–203, receiving
eight Republican votes and one Democrat vote against. Five Republicans co-sponsored the
bill along with several Democrats.

According to a summary of the legislation, it will “utilize the current background checks
process in the United States to ensure individuals prohibited from gun possession are not
able to obtain firearms.” Currently, any firearm purchased at a retail store or online has
to go through a background check and has to involve a licensed firearms dealer with a
federal firearms license, known as an FFL. Specifically, H.R. 8 would also require background
checks for private sales.

The House recently passed another control measure, H.R. 1446, which allows for the FBI to
indefinitely delay background checks. Currently, there is a three-day default transfer window.
That measure was introduced by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
have said they would reintroduce other gun control measures. President Joe Biden’s
administration also expressed support for such measures in recent days.

“No more hopes and prayers, thoughts and prayers—a vote is what we need,” said Schumer
in a news conference, when he vowed to bring H.R. 8 out of former Senate Republican Leader
Mitch McConnell’s “legislative graveyard” after it stalled in the Senate in 2019.

Republicans have said these measures won’t make Americans safer, with one saying that
H.R. 8 would create a possible “national registry of firearms.”

“The idea that this is going to make us safer is laughable,” said Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) on
the House floor on March 11. “Criminals looking to get their hands on firearms to use in crimes
are not going to submit to background checks. Only law-abiding citizens will follow the law.
This is a back door means of setting up a national registry of firearms—something I
completely oppose.”

Miller added that the United States has “enough gun laws,” but she said that “we need is to
make sure the laws we have are enforced.”

“We need better enforcement—not more laws,” Miller added. “Instead of passing terrible
legislation like H.R. 8, we need to do a better job of providing law enforcement agencies with
the resources they need to enforce existing gun laws.”

The bills and proposals come as record numbers of firearms are continuing to be sold in the
United States. According to recent figures from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background
Check System (NICS), gun sales in January surged by almost 10 percent month-over-month
and about 60 percent as compared with January 2019.

After H.R. 8 was passed by the House in 2019 as well, it was never taken up by the
Republican-controlled Senate. Schumer said on March 11 that the legislation will be
discussed in the Senate.


The National Rifle Association, in a 2019 analysis, said that if passed, the bill would require that
“loans, gifts, and sales of firearms be processed by a gun store. The same fees, paperwork, and
permanent record-keeping apply as to buying a new gun from the store.

“If you loan a gun to a friend without going to the gun store, the penalty is the same as for
knowingly selling a gun to a convicted violent felon. Likewise, when the friend returns the gun,
another trip to the gun store is necessary, upon pain of felony.”