GunsBipartisan proposal makes gun-trafficking a federal crime for the first time

Lawmakers yesterday introduced a proposal to toughen federal penalties for people who illegally purchase firearms for someone else. The bipartisan proposal is an indication that Democrats and Republicans are exploring areas of agreement to reduce gun violence in the United States.

Fox News reports that Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont) unveiled the new bill Monday afternoon on the Senate floor.

The bill would make gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time, with penalties of up to twenty years for “straw purchasers.” In straw purchases, individuals by firearms for people who are legally barred from doing so, including felons, spousal abusers, and illegal immigrants. The bipartisan bill would also punish the seller of the firearm to a straw purchaser.

“The practice of straw purchasing is used for one thing — to put firearms into the hands of those that are prohibited by law from having them,” Leahy said. “Many are then used to further violent crimes.”

The Washington Post reports that the bill weds elements of two competing gun trafficking measures: A Leahy bill which included punishments for straw purchasers and a bill cosponsored by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) and Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) which would punish the person selling the weapon to a straw purchaser.

Other senators sponsoring the bill, in addition to Leahy, Gillibrand, and Kirk, Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Susran Collins (R-Maine).

Collins said she believed the new proposal “can bring all of us together.” She noted that people illegally buying weapons are “easily exploiting the weak federal laws to obtain firearms” and that the new bill would help end the practice and punish people with more than “a slap on the wrist, or treating this as if it were simply a paperwork violation.”

Gillibrand told the Post that she expects at least six more Senate Democrats and Republicans could cosponsor the bill. “It’s entirely targeted to criminals and the criminal sale and the criminal networks,” and thus something that moderates wary of supporting new gun laws should be able to support, Gillibrand said.

The Post notes that another group of senators — Kirk, Charles Schumer (D-New York), Joe Manchin III (D-West Virginia), and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) — continues negotiating details of a bill which would expand the national gun background check program. Disagreements, however, remain on the issue of record-keeping for private firearms sales.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin debating and approving four gun-related bills on Thursday.