Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va) said he does not support the House-passed bills that would expand background checks to all gun sales.
Manchin, however, suggested he wanted a bill that provided a bigger carve-out for private sales between individuals who know each other, The Hill reports.
“I come from a gun culture. I’m a law-abiding gun owner,” Manchin said, adding that he supports “basically saying that commercial transactions should be background checked. You don’t know a person.”
Sen. Manchin had a background check legislation with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) that was brought up twice in the Senate—after Sandy Hook in 2013 and once again in 2015– and failed. Both times the bill got the support of four Republican senators, only two are currently in the Senate, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Toomey. Both senators do not support the House passed bill.
Toomey said he didn’t think “the House has passed anything that can pass the Senate.”
Collins said she hasn’t seen the bill but from her understanding it is “very, very broad.”
The Manchin-Toomey bill did not go as far as the universal background check bills passed in the House this month.
One bill would extend the window for completing a background check before a gun sale.
The second bill would extend background checks to all sales and transfers with some exemptions, including for transfers between family members, responding to an immediate threat or temporary transfer for hunting.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is going to bring the two legislations up for a vote on the Senate floor.
The renewed interest in passing stricter gun laws comes after there was a second mass shooting in less than a week, this time at the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado that left 10 people dead including a police officer.
