From last week:
Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said Wednesday that a hearing on gun legislation is possible this year if bills to restrict firearms pass through the Democratic-led House as standalone measures...
“If the House begins to move on their end, then we are willing to take a look at it on our side,” Gazelka said. “I’m not so sure it’s going to pass on our side. In fact I don’t think it’s going to pass on our side. But I think an open hearing on it is worthwhile.”
One bill awaiting a vote in the House would require background checks on all but a few types of gun sales and transfers. The other would give law enforcement greater latitude to seek a court-ordered revocation of guns if they or a person’s family believes there’s a risk of gun violence. It’s possible both could be put to up-or-down votes on their own and tucked into budget bills, which would put them in the end-of-session mix...
He stressed that such a Senate committee hearing would also involve bills favored by gun-rights supporters. That includes an expansion of self-defense laws and a measure to step up penalties for gun transfers to someone whom the seller knows to be ineligible to have a firearm. - MPR
A hearing! Why, that's awfully "big" of Sen. Gazelka, given that the House measures are only
supported by 89 and 87% of Minnesotans, respectively, per recent polling. Meanwhile, perhaps you've seen what one of the Minnesota Party of Trump's parent organizations (in practical terms, anyway) is up to.
In the United States today, a man convicted of physically abusing his spouse, ex-spouse, live-in lover, or co-parent does not have the right to own a firearm. A man convicted of assaulting his casual dating partner — or stalking him or her, after they break up — however, can carry on owning as many AR-15s as his heart desires. (The same, of course, holds for abusers of all genders).
Congressional Democrats want to change that. And not without reason. Women in abusive relationships are five times more likely to be murdered by their partner if he (or, in rare cases, she) owns a firearm. About half of all female homicide victims are killed by intimate partners — and about half of intimate partner homicides are committed by casual dating partners. The fact that federal law bars abusive husbands — but not abusive boyfriends — from owning guns has no criminological justification. Thus, Nancy Pelosi’s caucus wants to use Congress’s pending reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act as an opportunity to close “the boyfriend loophole,” by adding language that would bar abusive dating partners and stalkers from purchasing firearms.
But the National Rifle Association is rallying to the defense of the little guy (who stalks his ex-girlfriends and stockpiles deadly weapons). - New York Magazine
