Lance, Upton lead GOP push to fast track background-check bill

U.S. Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Fred Upton (R-MI) have mobilized 17 Republican colleagues and put the pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan to fast track a bill that aims to update the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

“In the wake of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, calls for Congress to revise the nation’s existing gun laws have been renewed,” wrote the lawmakers in a Feb. 23 letter to Ryan that requested immediate consideration of the Fix NICS Act of 2017, H.R. 4477.

“Let us pass this legislation next week and take a small but important step toward making our country safer from gun violence,” wrote the members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who also included U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent (R-PA), Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Dan Donovan (R-NY), John Katko (R-NY), Ryan Costello (R-PA), and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).

If enacted, the bipartisan and bicameral H.R. 4477 would amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, among other provisions, to spur mental health and criminal record information sharing between NICS and state and local law enforcement agencies. Media reports have stated that the Feb. 14 Florida high school shooter had been previously reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a potential threat, but the investigation is ongoing. H.R. 4477 would impose noncompliance penalties on agencies that failed to make accurate and prompt reports to NICS in accordance with the law.

“Guns must be kept out of the hands of dangerous, unstable individuals,” Rep. Upton said last week.

“Background checks are the first line of defense in law enforcement’s efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers and those deemed dangerously mentally ill,” said Rep. Lance.

The lawmakers noted in their letter that an earlier mass shooting precipitated the introduction last November of H.R. 4477 by U.S. Rep. John Abney Culberson (R-TX). The tragedy occurred on Nov. 5, 2017 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 people were shot and killed, and 20 people injured by a former military man with a criminal history. The shooter formerly served in the U.S. Air Force, which had court martialed the gunman for domestic violence but failed to provide that information to the FBI, as it was required to do.

“Congress should immediately take up and pass the bipartisan and bicameral Fix NICS Act to close the system’s loopholes to strengthen our nation’s background check system and make our country safer from gun violence,” Lance said last week.

H.R. 4477 passed the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 29, 2017 and has nine original cosponsors, including U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Barbara Comstock (R-VA), and Costello.
H.R. 4477 is the House version of S. 2135, introduced on Nov. 15, 2017 by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
S. 2135 has 41 cosponsors, including U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and John Hoeven (R-ND). The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on S. 2135 on Dec. 6, 2017.