Reports out of Washington states a new bipartisan bill on gun laws could be introduced this week in the Senate. After several national gun massacres, Washington D.C. is finally getting their act together.
The last gun massacre in New Town, CT may have broken the camels back as far as tolerance for maintaining the status quo. Normally, the NRA, Republican party and other organizations would wait for the outrage to calm down and then fight against any new gun laws. However, this time around it would appear to be a different story. The reality of 26 young victims gunned down by a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle Bushmaster XM-15 E2S rifle will never leave the memories of the American people. In the memory of these 26 kids, the fight for changing the existing gun laws remain stronger than ever.
New hope with this bipartisan bill
The fresh smell of bipartisanship is in the air in Washington D.C. A bill sponsored by three Democrats (Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand) and two Republicans (Illinois Senator Mark Kirk and Maine Senator Susan Collins) could be introduced this Thursday in the Senate. The bill is called the Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013.
The bill is loaded with common sense legislation. If passed, the bill will make it harder to sell to Mexican drug cartels, punish those who buy guns and ammo for others, stiffens penalties for gun smugglers and stops the flow of guns from going state to state. This bill also makes use of existing law to make smuggling guns out of the country a criminal offense too. If caught, violators could face up to 10 years in prison with a $250,000 fine.
Why this bill could pass the House and Senate
This bipartisan bill have a good chance to be signed into law because of the continuing support to do something. Democrats have been on this issue like no other, while Republicans been waiting on the NRA. This wasn’t a wise move by the Republican party because the leader of the NRA Wayne LaPierre has made damaging comments after the New Town shootings. This has left the door open for a quick bipartisan solution to the problem so the Republican party can move forward on to issues such as immigration.
The supporters of this bill created this legislation because of local law enforcement requesting stricter gun laws to help save more cops. Senators believe it will help law enforcement stop guns from being sold and resold across state lines (it will empower police in their fight against gun traffickers.)
Senator Leahy of Vermont is the committee’s chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He believes this law is also great for the state of Arizona. It will give border patrols a solid law to make arrest in order to stop smugglers. This is necessary after the Fast and Furious incident. According to CNN:
Nearly 2,000 firearms from the program went missing, some turning up at killing scenes in Mexico — and at the site of a December 2010 gun battle in Arizona that left U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry dead.
Although this bill could be brought up for debate Thursday, more could be added to this bill. California Senator Dianna Feinstein’s assault weapons ban could be added on too long with universal background checks.
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