While pitting national security concerns post-Orlando against gun rights has peeled off some Republican support for a new bipartisan gun control measure in the Senate this week, it is probably not going to be enough to advance a “no fly, no buy” compromise bill in the Senate.
Part of that was by design. Senate GOP leadership explicitly designed the vote to go nowhere by using a procedural tactic. Part of it was that there is still not enough bipartisan support in the Senate to pass even the most narrow gun control measures.
Here’s what happened.
McConnell had promised Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that she would get a vote on legislation that barred individuals on the selectee and no-fly lists from purchasing guns. But, he did not give her a traditional vote that moved it closer to becoming law. Instead, on Thursday McConnell had the Senate vote on whether to table the legislation. That means that McConnell gave the Senate only the option to completely brush the compromise bill off to the side.
The Senate voted against tabling Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) bipartisan gun bill Thursday afternoon: It was a partial victory, but Collins still did not demonstrate that she had 60 votes on the legislation, proving the bill likely wouldn’t have had enough support anyway if it were brought up as a formal vote. It is unclear whether McConnell will allow the bill to come to the floor for an up or down vote now.
A more conservative measure sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) did get tabled.
The vote showed that Collins’ bill had much more bipartisan support than Johnson’s, but it still would likely not be enough to secure the 60 votes needed to end debate. Collins worked over the week to attract a broad swath of Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Patrick Toomey (R-PA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) supported the bill as did Democratic leaders.
