House Democrats try bypassing GOP to force gun vote
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Rep. Salud Carbajal. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
A group of House Democrats on Wednesday announced an effort to go around GOP leadership and force a vote on expanding "red flag" gun laws.
Why it matters: The Supreme Court's mixed rulings on gun control laws this term – scrapping a bump stock ban but maintaining gun limits for domestic abusers – has reignited Democratic efforts to pass gun control laws.
- Democrats lined up behind a bump stock bill last week, after the Supreme Court ruling on the issue, but Republicans blocked it from passing.
Driving the news: Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) announced in a press release that they are introducing a discharge petition on the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Act.
- The maneuver would force a House vote after a certain time period if 218 lawmakers sign onto the petition, with or without the assent of GOP leadership.
- The bill would allow federal courts to issue orders removing guns from those deemed a risk to themselves or others and create a Justice Department grant program expanding such orders at the state level.
What they're saying: "Red flag laws should not be controversial ... new avenues for intervention, new resources for training, and better standards for data would help more communities and save more lives," Carbajal said in a statement.
- A bipartisan gun safety bill passed in 2022 after the Uvalde shooting created incentives for states to pass red flag laws but did not institute a federal system for them.
- 21 states and D.C. have some form of red flag laws.
Reality check: Democrats have launched a slew of discharge petitions this congressional session – including on gun control – but found little success.
- That is because, in order to be successful, any discharge petition would require at least a handful of GOP signatures, and Republican leadership has strongly urged its members not to help Democrats effectively hijack the House floor.
- The only successful discharge petition this Congress was introduced by a Republican and received substantial Democratic support.
