On June 10, we reported that senior House democrats and the NRA had reached a deal on background check legislation both sides could accept. Today, June 13, the House passed the bill on a voice vote. According to the New York Times:
The House bill, a compromise between gun rights supporters and gun control advocates on both sides of the aisle, would provide grant money for states to update the national database that gun dealers use for background checks on prospective buyers. The update would add more criminal records and mental health information to the database.The bill now moves to the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has promised introduce it without amendments “very soon.” Senator Schumer told the Times that “When the N.R.A. and I agree on legislation, you know that it’s going to get through, become law and do some good.”
One of the sponsors of the bill was Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat who has led other efforts to tighten gun control laws and whose husband was killed by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993. Ms. McCarthy called the bill a “good policy that will save lives.”
Boys and girls, good things can happen when people find common ground.
