The House of Representatives voted Friday to send the Senate-passed bipartisan gun bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The House voted 234-193 to pass the legislation, the most significant congressional action on gun issues in nearly three decades.
Every House Democrat voted in favor of the bill. They were joined by 14 Republicans, including Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican whose district includes Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed last month in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since 2012.
But unlike Arizona’s Democratic senators — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who sponsored the legislation, and Sen. Mark Kelly voted Thursday in support of the package — Arizona’s House delegation was split along party lines.
House Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego, Raúl Grijalva, Ann Kirkpatrick, Tom O’Halleran and Greg Stanton voted for the bill. Republican Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Debbie Lesko, David Schweikert voted against it.
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act makes critical investments in mental health resources, protections for victims of domestic violence, increased vetting and background checks for those 18-20 years old and supports evidence-based school safety,” Grijalva, the most senior member of the state’s delegation, said in a written statement after the vote. “Arizona must act swiftly to implement the red flag law program incentivized in this legislation. We know these programs work and prevent the worst in times of danger or crisis by individuals who seek to do harm to themselves or others. Law enforcement, mental health professionals and responsible gun owners overwhelmingly support these measures. If Arizona fails to act in this regard, they will be responsible for avoidable deaths and tragedy.”
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky., joined 14 other GOP senators Thursday in supporting the gun legislation, House Republican leaders, bolstered by support from the National Rifle Association, held firm in opposition.
Referencing the Supreme Court’s Friday reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision, Biggs argued that the gun bill would fall short in its goal of deterring violent crime while treating 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds as “second-class citizens.”
“There’s no right to take that life,” Biggs said on the House floor moments before the vote. “But there is a right to defend yourself. We have a God-given, constitutionally protected right to defend ourselves and the Supreme Court reaffirmed that just yesterday. This bill infringes on the constitutionally protected rights of law-abiding Americans.”
The juvenile provisions in the Bipartisan Communities Safety Act Biggs cited by Biggs provide incentives for states to include records of felonies committed by juveniles in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. And they restructure the protocol for the NICS review of said records.
Gosar called the legislation an unconstitutional infringement on Second Amendment rights that won’t do anything to stop gun violence or address the issues that lead to it.
“The truth is, enhanced background checks on adults under 21 years of age are discriminatory, red flag laws will be abused by zealous gun-grab proponents targeting their political enemies and have shown to have little to no impact on reducing mass shootings and expanding the so-called boyfriend loophole will not protect victims,” Gosar said in a written statement.
“Rather than support anti-gun legislation, Congress should be focusing on mental health, school safety and giving Americans back their right to defend themselves by repealing foolish legislation that bans teachers and staff from carrying a gun by establishing gun-free school zones,” he said.
The bill falls far short in delivering the more robust gun-control steps sought by many Democrats, which run from universal background checks to a ban on assault rifles.
“Make no mistake, this bill will save lives,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said in a statement. “However, ridding our country of mass shootings and gun deaths will require bolder solutions — solutions the House has repeatedly approved. The work is not done, but today we should celebrate this historic legislative achievement.”
Speaking on the steps of the U.S. Capitol ahead of the House vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., called on her party to recognize the value of political compromise.
“I say to my colleagues, while it isn’t everything we would have liked to see in legislation, it takes us down the road, the path to more safety, saving more lives,” Pelosi said. “Let us not judge the legislation for what it does not do, but respect it for what it does.”
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism