Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats to pass a ban on bump stocks following the Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Trump-era federal ban on the devices.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (DN.M.), author of the BUMP Act, presented his proposal for unanimous consent, but Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) blocked it.
The move came days after the court overturned a policy enacted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2018 after a mass shooting in Las Vegas killed 60 people and injured hundreds. The shooter used weapons equipped with bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire hundreds of rounds per minute.
“Welcome to another day in the Democratic summer of spectacular votes,” Ricketts said Tuesday, comparing the Democrats’ action to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (DN.Y.) decision to hold votes on reproductive rights in recent weeks.
Ricketts also said the Supreme Court ruled correctly last week.
“This bill may be called the BUMP Act, but it’s not really about bump stocks,” Ricketts said. “This bill aims to ban as many firearm accessories as possible and give the ATF broad authority to ban most semi-automatic firearms.”
Heinrich, who launched the bill a year ago alongside Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), seized on the idea that bump stocks will be available again.
“There is no legitimate use for a bump stock. Not for self-defense. Not for law enforcement. Not even in military applications, as they are less accurate than a standard fully automatic military platform,” Heinrich said. “They’re tailor-made for a mass shooting.”
However, it is unclear where the legislative effort goes from here.
Schumer declined to say whether he would bring the issue up for a full floor vote, saying only that he hoped Republicans would “see the light” and not block Heinrich’s bill.
“Donald Trump is hardly a friend of gun safety, but I am shocked that the Supreme Court is to his right,” Schumer said in remarks earlier in the day. “If Republicans mess up today, if they decide to side with the gun lobby instead of parents, teachers and law enforcement, they will be asking for another tragedy to happen sooner or later.”
In a concurring ruling last week, Justice Samuel Alito suggested that congressional action is a “simple solution” to this issue, but that seems unlikely at this point.
Several members said Monday they did not see a path for a bipartisan item to emerge, given the headwinds of election season.
Heinrich, however, was quick to note that the upper chamber acted two years ago in the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. This resulted in the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which is the most notable gun safety legislation to become law in nearly three decades.
“There is some skepticism about whether Congress will be able to do this – about whether it is impossible for us all to come together to ban bump stocks. But just two years ago, we proved that this kind of thinking is completely wrong,” he said. “When passing [the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act], we have proven that Congress can take concrete steps to protect our communities from gun violence. Now it’s time for us to take similar bipartisan action to ban bump stocks.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
