The U.S. House of Representatives approved a pair of bills aimed at expanding and strengthening background checks for gun buyers, as Democrats pushed past Republican opposition to advance major gun safety measures after decades of congressional inaction, reported the New York Times.
In two votes that fell largely along party lines, the House
passed legislation that would require background checks for all gun buyers, and
extend the time the F.B.I. has to vet those flagged by the national instant
check system.
Despite being widely popular with voters, the measures face
what is expected to be insurmountable opposition in the Senate, where
Republicans have resisted imposing any limits on guns, including stricter
background check requirements.
The House voted 227 to 203 to approve the expansion of
background checks, and 219 to 210 to give federal law enforcement more time to
vet gun buyers.
Both pieces of legislation are aimed at addressing gaps in
existing gun laws, including the so-called Charleston loophole, which restricts
to three days the period the F.B.I. has to conduct a background check, allowing
many buyers to evade them. The provision allowed Dylann Roof, the white
supremacist who killed nine people in 2015 at a historically Black church in
Charleston, S.C., to buy a handgun even though he should have been barred from
doing so. The bill would extend the amount of time the F.B.I. has to complete a
check for an additional week, to 10 days.
The other measure passed on Thursday would require those
buying firearms from private sellers online or purchasing them at gun shows to
have their backgrounds vetted before they could receive the weapon. They are
not currently required to do so, although in-person buyers, who make
up the majority of gun purchases, are.
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