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What's Next In The Gun Control Debate?

What's Next In The Gun Control Debate?

NPR: What’s Next In The Gun Control Debate?

Gun-control groups are regrouping after a bill to tighten background checks for gun sales failed to overcome a filibuster last week in the Senate. The failure was not only a stinging defeat for President Obama, it was also a setback for the new players in the debate. In this interview, Third Way co-founder Jim Kessler speaks with NPR’s Mara Liasson about the past and future of gun safety reform.

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The Manchin-Toomey Background Check Compromise

Two A-rated, NRA-endorsed, gun rights stalwarts, Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), have crafted a compromise amendment on background checks that protects the Second Amendment rights of gun owners while strengthening our ability to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, and those who are severely mentally ill.

This one-pager explains why both gun lovers and gun skeptics can support Manchin-Toomey. 

READ: The Manchin-Toomey Background Check Compromise

Can Gun Owners Love the Bipartisan Background Check Bill?

Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Toomey (R-PA) have introduced a bipartisan amendment to expand background checks for most private gun sales. Their compromise protects the Second Amendment rights of gun owners while strengthening our ability to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, and those who are severely mentally ill. 

Our newest memo explains how the proposed bipartisan legislation achieves that goal, and why policymakers from both perspectives—gun lovers and gun skeptics—can support the bill:

  • It requires criminal background checks for commercial sales conducted at gun shows or over the internet but not for sales from one friendly neighbor to another, recognizing that commercial sales are the real source of guns to traffickers.
  • It creates no gun registry—it simply relies on the same recordkeeping system that is currently employed by 59,000 licensed gun dealers around the country, who already keep paper receipts from the sales of about 170 million guns—and requires individuals to keep no new records.
  • It improves the background check system itself in order to more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

READ: Can Gun Owners Love the Bipartisan Background Check Bill?

The NRA’s Harmful Gun Trafficking Bill

The NRA’s substitute gun trafficking bill would just be one more toothless federal gun law cleverly written to accomplish practically nothing. This memo lays out the two major flaws in their proposal: 1) it would dismantle the straw purchaser provisions at the heart of the legislation passed by the Judiciary Committee; and 2) its standard of proof is so high that it would be impossible to prosecute.

The NRA gambit is simply an attempt to distract the Senate from supporting the much stronger measure approved by Judiciary. The Chairman’s bill would staunch the flow of guns into the illegal market and keep them out of the hands of criminals.

Read the full memo here.

Tax reform progressing in spite of fiscal gridlock

By David Brown

President Obama and his Republican dining companions showed last week that bipartisan schmoozing is back. Whether bipartisan deal-making will follow is anyone’s guess. But if it does, there are reasons to believe tax reform will be on the menu.

The most visible movement on tax reform is in the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) last week announced that the bill name “H.R. 1” would be reserved for tax reform. Traditionally, House speakers have given that title to bills that are among their top priorities. Consider some of the recent bills with that name: the stimulus package of 2009 and the Medicare prescription drug law of 2003.

The H.R. 1 designation signals the end of an internal Republican dispute over whether to proceed with tax reform. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-OH) previously advised the party to avoid the issue, because its progress could require votes on controversial topics like the mortgage and charitable deductions. But now, with Boehner’s blessing, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) has a green light to pursue his priority issue.

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Getting Immigration Done in 2013

Can we finally fix our broken immigration system? With the current bipartisan Senate proposal, the answer is YES. It clears two crucial tests: it could pass, and it could work.

  • It deals justly with the 11 million already here.
  • It gets tough on future lawbreakers.
  • It helps the economy.
  • It appeals to the vast middle.

If an undocumented immigrant registers with the U.S. government, goes through a criminal background check, and pays a fine, they will be forever allowed to work, travel, and conduct their affairs in America without fear of deportation. For their children, even better—they will be given a fast-track path to citizenship. And down the line, once more is done to secure the border, they can have an eventual chance to become citizens as well.

That’s reasonable for the left and the right.

Read: “Getting Immigration Done in 2013”

Blue World Order

How the Democrats can maintain the rare national security edge they enjoyed in the 2012 election.

BY MATT BENNETT and JEREMY ROSNER

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Alex Wong/Getty Images

For Republicans, the recent U.S. presidential election was supposed to be 1980. They would paint President Barack Obama as Jimmy Carter — weak on the economy and weak on national security. High unemployment and low growth? Check. National security? Democratic presidential candidates — from Carter to John Kerry — were often hobbled by public doubts about their fitness to protect the United States from foreign threats (see: “Dukakis, tank”).

But not this year. For the first time in decades, Democrats had a presidential candidate with an advantage on these issues. Obama entered the 2012 election with a successful foreign-policy record: The U.S. war in Iraq was over, the war in Afghanistan was winding down, Osama bin Laden was dead, al Qaeda’s top ranks were decimated, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi was toppled, and an international coalition had been assembled to impose the toughest-ever sanctions on Iran.

Americans have taken notice.As recently as 2003, Democrats trailed Republicans by 29 percentage points on which party voters trusted more on national security. But on Election Day this year, voters trusted Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, equally on national security — and they trusted the president 11 points more on the broader category of international affairs. This represents a historic turnaround.

This reversal reflects not only the president’s strong record, but also the incoherent positions of Romney and his Republican allies. Sometimes, they returned to the neoconservative recklessness of the George W. Bush era — banging the war drums on Iran and calling for the indiscriminate arming of Syrian rebels. At other times, Romney and his surrogates sounded frozen in the Cold War, calling Russia America’s No. 1 geopolitical foe and referring to the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia. Romney and the Republicans also argued that debt was America’s biggest challenge, even as they proposed spending trillions more on defense than even the Pentagon has requested.

Now the question is: Can Obama and his party retain that national security edge in the face of old doubts about the party and new global challenges?

(More after the jump)

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