Most people assumed that anything truly problematic in new gun-control legislation that comes out of the Senate would have little chance of getting through the House. Looks like we’ll get a chance to test that hypothesis sooner rather than later. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told Politico today that he and Mike Thompson (D-CA) will introduce the House version of Manchin-Toomey by Tuesday at the latest:
Reps. Peter King and Mike Thompson are planning to introduce a House version of the compromise on background checks for gun buyers on Monday or Tuesday, King told POLITICO exclusively on Friday.
“I will be introducing, along with Mike Thompson [D-Calif.], basically the House version of the Manchin-Toomey bill on Monday or Tuesday at the latest,” the New York Republican said, referencing the bipartisan agreement on background checks reached this week between Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
He said the legislation will “replicate” what was agreed to by those senators, a bipartisan deal that expands background checks for commercial gun purchases, including those made at gun shows.
Will this go anywhere in the House? King believes that it will draw “significant support among Republicans,” which if true means it should pass easily — assuming it gets out of committee. Any such bill would have to go through the House Judiciary Committee, currently chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Goodlatte stakes out a rather traditional position on gun control for conservatives on his official House website:
The government of the United States was created to protect the God-given rights of the people, from our First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom, to our Second Amendment right to bear arms, to our rights to hold private property and be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
Our rights come from God, not the government. I believe we must guard these God-given freedoms against infringement, whether that infringement is at the hands of other individuals or the government. …
I support the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act (H.R. 822), which protects the Second Amendment right of individuals to bear arms regardless of which state they are traveling through or visiting, as long as the individual complies with firearms laws of that state.
That doesn’t sound as though Goodlatte will cheerfully expedite the King-Thompson version of the bill, even when Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey get around to actually writing theirs [see update below]. Committee chairs have a great deal of influence on whether proposals get passed, or even get votes. Nothing in the above explicitly says that Goodlatte will oppose expanding background checks to some degree, but he’s clearly not going to be sympathetic to a more intrusive position on gun rights, and that may mean that King-Thompson won’t get much oxygen.
Curiously, Goodlatte doesn’t make National Journal’s list of five House Republicans to watch. In fact, none of them sit on the House Judiciary Committee, which suggests that Michael Catalini thinks a floor vote on expanded background checks is a foregone conclusion. He may be right, as polling shows that voters overwhelmingly endorse the concept, but the form of those checks will likely be significantly altered by Goodlatte and his committee — which means that Judiciary may be a more telling indicator.
Still, it’s worth noting a couple of key names on the list, including one who may aim for a 2016 run for the White House:
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. As House Budget Committee chairman, the face of the GOP’s fiscal message and a de facto member of leadership, Ryan’s position on the legislation is a key indicator. Ryan staunchly supports gun rights, hunts regularly and co-chaired the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, even taking his 10-year-old daughter hunting over Thanksgiving. She bagged a buck. He also suggested this week that Toomey’s involvement might have given the measure a conservative imprimatur. Instead of shying away from the bill, Toomey’s support could prove an incentive for conservatives to consider backing it. “Pat Toomey is one of the best legislators in this place in my book. So when Pat Toomey puts something out I pay attention to it. I look at it,” Ryan said this week on Morning Joe.
I don’t think Peter King has the same cachet in the House, though. I’d look for a very skeptical treatment from Judiciary on this proposal, and wait to see what comes out of committee before checking on Ryan’s reaction.
Update: Gabriel Malor pinged me with the link to the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which was released yesterday. He also noted that the language on “adjudicated mental defective” in the amendment duplicates what is already in the statute, so there has been no move to empower doctors to keep people from purchasing firearms. Big thanks to Gabriel for the update.
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