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| With the Capitol in the background, A unidentified man walks past thousands of grave markers erected in a mock cemetery on the National Mall in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2013, to honor the victims of gun violence. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Congress' most serious gun-control effort in years cleared its
first hurdle Thursday as the Senate pushed past conservatives' attempted
blockade under the teary gaze of families of victims of December's
Connecticut school shootings.
The bipartisan
68-31 vote rebuffed an effort to keep debate from even starting, giving
an early victory - and perhaps political momentum - to President Barack
Obama and his gun control allies. Four months after 20 first-graders and
six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown were killed,
relatives watching the vote from a gallery overlooking the Senate floor
dabbed at tears and clasped hands, some seeming to pray.
Even
so, few supporters of the legislation are confident of victory. Several
weeks of emotional, unpredictable Senate debate lie ahead, and a mix of
gun-rights amendments, opposition from the National Rifle Association
and skepticism from House Republican leaders leave big questions about
what will emerge from Congress. Foes of the proposed new restrictions
say they would penalize law-abiding citizens and do nothing to curb gun
violence.
"The hard work starts now," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who brought the legislation to the floor for debate.
Still,
in a Congress marked by a notable lack of cooperation between Democrats
and Republicans, Thursday's vote was one of several displays of unusual
rapport across party lines. In other examples not connected to the
issue of guns:
-Negotiators for the two
parties said they had reached agreement on the major elements of a
Senate immigration bill they're expected to unveil next week.
-The
top Republican in government, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio,
publicly disagreed with his party campaign chairman's criticism of
Obama's budget proposal to trim future Social Security and Medicare
benefits. Wednesday night, GOP senators left a White House dinner
praising Obama for reaching out to them on his budget.
-Senators
of both parties had a rare joint luncheon to honor Arizona Sen. John
McCain, the GOP's 2008
presidential nominee, on the 40th anniversary of
his release from a North Vietnamese prison.
Hoping
to bring pressure on Congress to act on gun control, supporters of new
restrictions have been demonstrating in Washington. They have erected a
mock graveyard with thousands of crosses on the National Mall,
symbolizing victims of gun violence.
The
Senate's firearms bill would subject nearly all gun buyers to background
checks, add muscle to federal laws barring illicit firearm sales and
provide slightly more money for school safety measures.
Excluded
and facing near-certain defeat in upcoming votes were proposals to ban
military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines - factors
in the Newtown killings some other recent mass shootings. But keeping
those provisions out of the current legislation did not mollify critics.
Opponents
said the remaining proposals were unwarranted intrusions on the Second
Amendment right to bear arms, would be ignored by criminals and would do
little to prevent future Newtowns. Obama's plans have received scant
support from Republicans and many moderate Democrats, with many saying
they prefer improvements in dealing with the mentally ill and stronger
enforcement of existing laws.
"I'm not
interested in a symbolic gesture which would offer the families of the
Sandy Hook shootings no real solutions that they seek," said Sen. John
Cornyn of Texas, the Senate's No. 2 Republican.
Congress
hasn't approved major gun restrictions since enacting an assault
weapons ban 19 years ago, a prohibition that lawmakers let lapse after a
decade.
Some potential amendments could broaden gun rights and weaken supporters' backing for the overall bill.
One
proposal is by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska,
who say it would improve how the federal background check system blocks
weapons from going to people with certain mental problems, though
critics say it would make it harder in some cases to do so. Another
possible amendment would require states to recognize permits for
carrying concealed weapons issued by other states.
In
Thursday's vote, 50 Democrats and 2 Democratic-leaning independents
were joined by 16 Republicans in voting to begin debate on the
legislation. Twenty-nine Republicans and two Democrats facing
re-election next year in GOP-leaning states voted "no" - Alaska's Begich
and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
After the roll
call, Obama spoke by phone with some Newtown families and said he would
"keep fighting for the votes they deserve," said White House spokesman
Jay Carney.
The Senate plans to debate an
amendment Tuesday expanding background checks less broadly than the
overall legislation would. Broadening the system to cover more
transactions is the heart of the current effort on guns.
That
amendment, a compromise between Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe
Manchin, D-W.Va., would subject buyers in commercial settings like gun
shows and the Internet to the checks but exempt non-commercial
transactions like sales between friends and relatives.
That
accord, unveiled Wednesday, was designed to build bipartisan support
for the legislation and seemed likely to do so. Toomey and Manchin are
among the most conservative members of their parties and are both gun
owners with NRA ratings of "A."
Toomey said Thursday he believes supporters of his compromise with Manchin would be able to beat back any filibuster attempt.
"Beyond that, I just don't know yet," he said on "CBS This Morning."
Gun-control
groups have embraced the Manchin-Toomey compromise with varying degrees
of enthusiasm, and they continued to applaud it on Thursday - while
also expressing concerns about some provisions.
Besides
the exemption for private sales, gun control advocates expressed
displeasure with language letting gun dealers sell handguns to
out-of-state customers, exempting some holders of permits for concealed
weapons from background checks and shielding individuals who sell guns
from some negligence lawsuits.
"We are
optimistic that this bill will make a dramatic difference in reducing
gun violence," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence.
The NRA said it opposed
the Manchin-Toomey compromise and warned senators that it would count
votes on provisions it opposes in its evaluation of candidates that it
provides its members, who the organization says number nearly 5 million.
