After San Bernardino attacks, lack of action in Congress
REPUBLICANS in Congress announced on Thursday, Dec. 3 that they would not take immediate action to bring up new gun control legislation, in the wake of the recent shooting attacks in San Bernardino, California.
Newly-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan said that there are “still too many unknowns” about the San Bernardino shootings, but “one common theme among many mass shootings is mental illness,” an issue which Congress has reportedly been working on through bills and legislation.
“People with mental illness are getting guns and committing these mass shootings,” Ryan said on CBS This Morning. He also made the same point earlier this week, in reaction to the Nov. 27 shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado.
GOP leaders said they would “prefer to focus on overhauling the country’s mental-health system,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Part of the discussion surrounding mental health legislation is who should and should not have access to guns, Ryan said, adding that banning gun purchases by people on no-fly terrorist watch lists (as urged by President Barack Obama) is not an option.
“Some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can’t get on planes, but those same people who we don’t allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. That’s a law that needs to be changed,” Obama said on Wednesday, Dec. 2, the day of the San Bernardino attacks.
“Government officials put people on such lists without any due legal process, and so denying those listed the right to bear arms would violate their rights,” Ryan argued, according to USA Today. “People have due process rights in this country.”
“There will be multiple issues Congress can address, whether it means finding gaps in law enforcement, or passing crucial legislation,” the Republican from Wisconsin also suggested. But “there shouldn’t be a rush to do either at the risk of infringing upon the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
House Republicans have already rejected several Democratic attempts to use a procedural motion to bring gun reform legislation to the House floor.
Authorities have not indicated that the San Bernardino shooters, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, were on any no-fly lists. The guns they used to kill 14 people at the Inland Regional Center for people with developmental disabilities were purchased legally.
“Part of the challenge here…and I think the frustration that people feel is everybody kind of feels like we should do something, but doing something versus doing something which will actually make a difference are two different things,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD). “Sometimes we focus on the gun itself when we probably should be focusing on the person that’s using that gun.”
In the wake of last month’s terror attacks in Paris, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) created a Republican task force on homeland security, which is intended to consider “any gaps or vulnerabilities in US security.” He has also said the no-fly list gun ban would be something the task force “will look at.”
A day after the attacks, Democratic leaders attempted to force votes on several gun control measures, including expanded background checks of suspected individuals.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered an amendment to allow the attorney general to prevent someone from buying a gun if that person is a known or suspected terrorist. A person could also be barred from buying a firearm if the attorney general has a “reasonable belief” that the individual would use it in connection with a terrorist act.
“If somebody is too dangerous to board an airplane (because they are on a terrorist watch list), they are too dangerous to buy a gun,” Feinstein said at a press conference with Democratic senators. “This shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”
Senate Republicans have blocked Democrats’ gun-related amendments to a healthcare bill, including a measure that would have expanded background checks to all gun sales online and at gun shows, aiming to flag people with criminal or mental-health histories that would disqualify them from gun ownership.
Current law states that checks are needed only for sales by federally-licensed dealers.
Democrats also tried to attach the background check provisions to a Republican measure that intends to repeal portions of Obamacare, and ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood (which Obama has said he will veto). However, Republicans swiftly blocked the measures in a series of floor votes, instead offering alternative versions of the amendments.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats would “continue to push the legislation, and may try to attach it to an omnibus spending bill to fund the government through the 2016 fiscal year.”
“The worst thing we can do is do nothing,” Schumer said.
“For far too long we’ve done nothing, even as gun violence shakes our nation to its core,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Senate floor. “The American people are desperately looking for help, some help, any help.”
