Five House Republicans sided with Democrats to pass a massive gun control package in the House of Representatives this week.
Democrats passed the anti-gun ownership legislation in the House 223-204, with five Republicans joining them and two Democrats siding against them.
The five defectors were:
Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)
Anthony Gonzalez (OH)
Chris Jacobs (NY)
Adam Kinzinger (IL)
Fred Upton (MI)
Of these 5 Republicans, only Fitzpatrick is up for reelection this year with the other 4 having already decided not to run for reelection.
While House Republican leadership did officially oppose the larger package, they made it clear that members of the caucus were welcome to support individual measures as long as they weren’t signing on for the larger bill.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said of the individual pieces of the bill, “We know some members of our caucus who support some of those components.”
Ten total House Republicans signed on to raise the age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. These include Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Chris Jacobs (NY), John Katko (NY), Adam Kinzinger (IL), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Maria Salazar (FL), Chris Smith (NJ), Mike Turner (OH), and Fred Upton (MI). Republican Senator Mitt Romney (UT) has also signaled that he plans to support raising the age to purchase these weapons, although he hasn’t indicated any support for the larger bill that passed the House.
On top of this legislation, Politico reported that Republicans supported other portions of the bill as well. Seven Republicans voted for a provision “related to gun trafficking purchases”, eight Republicans supported “requiring a background checks for ghost guns”, three more voted for a provision “related to the safe storage of firearms”, 13 voted for banning bump stocks gun attachments, and four more House Republicans supported banning the sale of high-capacity magazines.
Despite finding limited support from the Republican Party, the measures are not expected to pass the Senate as a package. While Senator Joe Manchin has voiced openness for supporting certain measures, he has seemed non-committal on the overall bill, which Democrats would need him plus another 10 Republicans to pass. Do you think any new measures will pass following the recent mass shootings? Do these politicians care at all or are they all just pretending to care for votes?
