This week senate democrats went on a marathon filibuster to force republicans into a vote on numerous gun control bills. Senator Chris Murphy was hailed as a hero has he spearheaded the filibuster that finally sent republicans to the vote, but it doesn’t mean everything that’s voted on is going to work just because a vote is actually happening.
To summarize: the first two bills that set to be voted on are as follows: people on terrorist watch lists are now stopped from buying a gun. Republicans want these people to have 72 hours so the FBI can find probable cause to deny their weapon purchase. The second bill closes a loophole in which gun purchases online or at gun shows circumvent background checks. The background check bill, in a similar but different from failed to pass after the Sandy Hook massacre.
Shockingly to some, those requirements were not already put in place, but Noah makes a point in that the terror watch list is secret and stats show that nearly a million people are on it. Hillary Clinton said after the Pulse nightclub shooting that, “If you are too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.” But the liberty the 2nd amendment provides is a tricky thing to navigate.
Those against this ruling feel that if the government can put you on a list then reject your constitutional right to bear arms, where does it end? Yes, felons can’t vote while they’re incarcerated, on parole or on probation, but that’s after they’ve been convicted of a crime. Those on this list are only being “watched.”
As Noah says, the bill that addresses gun sales to those on the watch list, both the republican and democrat versions of the bill, are flawed. However, the bill that closes the loophole of allowing people to purchase guns should be celebrated.