WASHINGTON — Thought to be the golden ticket to compromise, the Manchin-Toomey amendment failed to reach the 60 votes it needed to advance on the Senate floor in April. The debate, however, is far from over and gun owners appear to be split on whether they can support expanded background checks — a key element in the stalled legislation.
“Anyone who wants to do a background check on me, I’ll come up clean,” said Monica Butz, a gun owner from New Orleans, La. “I’m for that.”
Butz and her husband bought their first handgun folllowing Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They did not have electricity for three weeks after the storm, the street lights were out and there were reports of looting. She heard rumors that the police were unable to do their jobs.
“It was a very fearful time and we were not gun owners until that time, “ Butz said. “I do feel safer having a gun.” She keeps her weapon unloaded and locked in a case in her home.
Evan Watts, another gun owner who supports wider background checks and is also a National Rifle Association member, said having more records checks at the point of purchase – including at gun shows — is a good thing. It could help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, said Watts who is from El Paso, Texas.
“To see who will probably misuse it [a firearm], “ Watts said. “You won’t catch everybody, but you really can tell which ones are blatantly obvious.”
The NRA successfully opposed the background check legislation in the current round of debate and also fought against a separate amendment that would have prohibited sale of military style assault weapons.
Under the stalled Manchin-Toomey proposal, criminal background checks, using the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS), would be mandated between private parties and also at gun shows where some sellers do not perform the checks.
According to a report by the Department of Justice, 1.5 percent of the 10.4 million applications for firearm transfers or permits were denied by the FBI in 2010.
In a compromise, the bill would not have extended these background checks on guns sales among family members and personal friends.
But it wasn’t enough. The Manchin-Toomey legislation was stopped in its tracks this spring, falling six votes short of overcoming a Republican-led filibuster. It could be brought up again in this Congress, but supporters would still have to muster a three-fifths majority to break the filibuster.
Chuck Nesby, the manager of NOVA Firearms in Falls Church, Va., said incorporating more background checks at gun shows would be hard to enforce and expensive.
“I’m against it, “ Nesby said. “And why I’m against it is because it’s unenforceable.”
Nesby said that federally licensed firearms dealers at gun shows already do background checks. And some of the unlicensed dealers, that don’t do the checks, often ask for a copy of the buyer’s driver’s license and phone number.
Christine Tryon Rice, a gun owner from Chandler, Ariz., thinks expanding background checks is just another hoop for responsible gun owners to jump through. She feels law-abiding gun owners suffer for the harm done by gun-toting criminals.
“Why should we good Americans be limited while a few take advantage and harm other people, “ Rice said in an interview in front of the White House. “It’s not the every-day American that’s killing people, it’s the criminals.”
One large Second Amendment group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, initially helped shape the background check section of the Manchin-Toomey bill. But the group later pulled its support after sponsors dropped a provision that would have allowed those with certain non-violent felony convictions the chance to eventually regain eligibility for a gun purchase.
“The measure we supported was not brought to the Senate floor, “ said Dave Workman, communications director at the citizens committee. “There must be some give and take.”
The committee, a grassroots organization, says it has about 650,000 members across the country. The group does not endorse politicians but advises members on the positions that lawmakers take on Second Amendment issues.
Workman said that gun owners in general are opposed to expanding background checks for fear that that would lead to a national gun registry and confiscation.
“There are only two reasons to have a gun registry, “ Workman said. “To either tax gun owners or take their guns away.”
However, the Manchin-Toomey amendment would not have created the gun registry. The proposal specifically states “Congress supports and reaffirms the existing prohibition on a national firearms registry.”
In 2011, there were 12,664 murder victims, in which 8,583 involved firearms. Of the total weapons used, firearms comprised 67.7 percent. – Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics
Of the total number of firearms used, 72.5 percent were handguns. – Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics