The Frederick News-Post - Lawmakers, Candidates Debate Gun Control

News Article

By Danielle E. Gaines

The national gun control debate has led to a Senate filibuster, a House sit-in, and as of late Thursday, potential compromise legislation with a narrow edge in the Senate.

On Wednesday, House members representing Frederick County joined in the Democratic sit-in. Maryland's Democratic senators, Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, joined a "Hold the Floor" filibuster in that chamber last week.

At the core of the bills under consideration in both chambers was how and whether to expand background checks to all commercial gun sales and whether to prohibit gun sales to people on FBI terror watch lists.

U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-6th, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-8th, took part in the sit-in.

Delaney encouraged the House's Republican leadership to bring the measures to the floor.

"In any other world other than the House of Representatives of the United States of America in 2016, would you think there would be a question as to whether people on the no-fly list, as deemed by the FBI, should be able to buy a gun?" he asked during the protest, before criticizing the political influence of the National Rifle Association.

Van Hollen said the chambers' inaction in the face of injustice "makes this House complicit in that injustice. It makes us complicit in the carnage that goes on. It makes us responsible for lives taken when we know there are actions we can take to save lives."

Van Hollen, who is seeking Mikulski's seat after her retirement, said late Thursday in a statement that a Senate compromise measure "would be a small but positive step forward; but unfortunately its future is uncertain."

Introduced by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that proposal more narrowly tailors "no fly, no buy" bills to limit gun sale prohibitions to people on the government's no-fly list or "selectee list," subsets of the terror watch list, and allows for that decision to be appealed.

Earlier versions of the bill drew criticism because they would forbid sales to a much broader list of suspected terror suspects, without protections for due process.

Collins' proposal won the support of 52 colleagues, including Mikulski and Cardin, in a test vote on Thursday afternoon. The House adjourned until July 5 without a vote on any proposed gun control measures.
Candidates speak out

Dan Cox, a Republican from Emmitsburg running for Van Hollen's 8th District seat, said he's been following the gun control debate.

He called much of the discussion from Democrats in the Capitol misguided.

"The issue in front of us is that we were attacked in Orlando and gun control is not the answer to dealing with ISIS," Cox said in a phone interview Thursday. "ISIS would love for us to be disarmed."

Cox said the debate has highlighted the issue of false positives on the U.S. terror watch list and a need for the Justice Department to dedicate more vigilance to building probable cause to arrest suspected terrorists. He disagreed with any system that would cause potential gun buyers to be denied their Second Amendment rights without due process.

"We need to preserve and protect our constitutional liberties," he said.

His opponent, Democratic state Sen. Jamie Raskin, said he supports national gun control reform and would support changes including a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons, universal background checks, lifting the ban on federal research of gun violence as a public health epidemic and strengthening enforcement efforts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

While he understands the concerns about due process rights, Raskin also said the "no fly, no buy" proposals have merit.

"Given that we have a terrorist watch list, it makes no sense to say that someone is too dangerous to be allowed to board an airplane, but they can turn around and leave the airport and go purchase firearms," he said.

Raskin added that he thinks "the vast majority of American people favor reasonable, common-sense gun safety measures."

Republican state Delegate Kathy Szeliga, who is running against Van Hollen for Mikulski's Senate seat, and Amie Hoeber, who is running against Delaney in the 6th District, did not return calls for comment by 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

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