Facts about & Full Text 'Gun Control Bill' to Expand Background Checks in USA
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| Facts about 'Gun Control Bill' that would Expand Background Checks in USA |
Facts about 'Gun Control Bill'
The House passed the legislation in two separate votes
*The first vote on H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, passed 227-203 and would expand background checks for all firearm sales or transfers in the country. A prior version of the H.R. 8 bill passed the House in 2019 but did not receive 60 votes in the Senate to clear the filibuster.
Currently, background checks are not required for gun sales and transfers by unlicensed and private sellers.
Check the Complete Text of H.R.8 - Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021
*Separate Bill, H.R. 1446, introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and called the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021, passed 218-210 would close what's known as the "Charleston Loophole," which allows some licensed gun sales to go through before a required background check is done.
Using that loophole, Dylann Roof was able to legally purchase a firearm to kill nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Check the Full Text of H.R.1446 - Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021
The bill is the work of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force which was created in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The bills did face ire from Republican House members not in support of expanded background checks. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a tweet that “universal background checks on guns are only meant to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals.", ABC News report.
After the two bills were introduced, President Joe Biden threw his weight behind the effort, saying in a tweet that he is committed to "passing common-sense gun safety reforms as president."
Though both bills will likely pass in the House, they will face an embattled passage in the 50-50 split Senate. Though some moderate Democrats and Republicans, like Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have put forward background check bills in the past.
What is the Gun Control Bill?
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 buyers shopping for firearms online or 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 such transactions, are.
| Gun sales have surged in the past year, requiring the F.B.I. to conduct more background checks than before, according to data obtained by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to antigun violence. That data showed that over 10 months in 2020, the F.B.I. reported 5,807 sales to prohibited buyers through the Charleston loophole, more than in any other entire calendar year. |
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