The U.S. Senate has voted down two gun violence prevention amendments that would have struck the balance Americans are seeking in our nation’s laws regulating the sale and ownership of guns. The vote to stop these gun violence prevention measures comes just a week after 49 LGBTQ and allied people were massacred — and 53 others were injured — in an attack on a club in Orlando on Latin night.
The amendments to the FY 17 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act (H.R. 2578) were introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Chris Murphy. Sen. Feinstein’s proposal, backed by the Department of Justice, would have ensured that the Department of Justice had the authority to deny gun sales to individuals the Department had a reasonable suspicion was involved in terrorism. Sen. Murphy’s proposal would have closed the unlicensed seller loophole by requiring criminal background checks on all sales while maintaining reasonable exceptions for family, hunting and emergency self-defense.
“We are deeply disappointed in each and every Senator who failed to stand up today for commonsense gun violence prevention legislation,” said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy. “For decades, LGBTQ people have been a target for bias-motivated violence, and easy access to deadly weapons has compounded this threat. The volatile combination of animosity towards the LGBTQ community and easy access to deadly weapons exacerbates the climate of fear and the dangers faced by LGBTQ people. Reasonable gun violence prevention measures are part of the solution to bias-motivated violence, and it’s critical that Congress pass commonsense legislation.”
Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur issued the following statement: “Slightly more than a week has elapsed since the worst mass shooting in history, in a country where the regularity of mass shootings horrifies the world. The U.S. Senate has followed the now-predictable pattern of proclaiming that their “thoughts and prayers” are with the victims, while denying those same victims any meaningful action on their behalf. They did not act on behalf of the six year olds gunned downed in Newtown. They did not act on behalf of social workers gunned down in San Bernardino. And once again, they have refused to act when 102 young, mostly Latino mostly LGBT people were gunned down in Orlando.
“We had tangible hope that thoughts and prayers would this time result in real protections – for the LGBT community, which has suffered staggering rates of violence long before Orlando – and for all Americans who want to be able to leave home to see a movie or send their child to school without fear that that kiss goodbye will be final. We are disappointed. Orlando is a call to action, for Equality California and for the LGBT community as a whole, to mobilize in support of meaningful gun safety reforms that will protect the LGBT community, our families and the broader communities we call home.”
In a letter sent prior to the vote, HRC urged senators to vote in favor of the critical legislation. Just over one week ago, a violent individual with easy access to guns was responsible for the most deadly mass shooting in our nation’s history, opening fire on an LGBTQ club on Latin night. Though details continue to emerge, and exact motives may never be known, it is clear that the murderer intentionally chose to target LGBTQ people out of deep-seated hate toward our community. The scale of devastation and horror wrought in the Orlando massacre may have been unique but, unfortunately, hate-motivated violence and murder has plagued our community for decades. According to the most recent FBI statistics, more than 20 percent of all reported hate crimes target people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity — and we know that federal data vastly underestimates the true extent of this epidemic.
The degree of bloodshed at Pulse nightclub and many other recent mass shootings may have been avoided if the perpetrators had faced reasonable restrictions on their ability to own a gun. In most states across the country, troubled individuals intent on carrying out violence can purchase assault-type weapons without a background check from an unlicensed seller, no questions asked, including in Florida. A supermajority of Americans support common sense solutions to gun violence including expanded background checks.
