Trump administration floats background check proposal to Senate GOP

Senate Republicans are responding cautiously to a new proposal to expand background checks for gun sales that the Trump administration is circulating on Capitol Hill. President Trump has yet to endorse the proposal, but the White House is taking the temperature of Senate Republican support for the idea. “There are some ideas floating around that different members of the administration are coming up with and at this point it’s probably too early to say” if Republicans will support it, said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.). “Our members are going to be very — proceed with caution — very skeptical of some of the ideas that have been put out there in the past, but I think they’re willing to listen,” Thune added. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he has not yet reviewed the administration’s memo on expanding background checks, which is along the lines of the amendment sponsored in 2013 by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “I haven’t seen it but I talked to [Attorney General William] Barr yesterday. He’s going around talking to people. If he’s good with it, I’m good with it,” Graham said of the memo. The memo, titled, “Idea for New Unlicensed-Commercial-Sale Background Checks,” proposes expanding background checks to all advertised commercial sales, including sales at guns shows, along the lines of the Manchin-Toomey proposal. The document was first reported on by The Daily Caller. Toomey, a lead Republican negotiator on expanding background checks, told reporters Wednesday that Barr, not the White House, drafted the memo. "I have spoken with the attorney general. I think I have a pretty good idea of what he has in mind. I think it's a very thoughtful, very constructive, very creative way to accomplish some important goals," Toomey said. "I think a number of things are still in a work in progress, to some degree," he added. The memo floats the idea of conducting background checks for all commercial sales either through a federally licensed firearms dealer or a newly created class of licensed transfer agents. Licensed transfer agents would not have an inventory of guns to sell but would be authorized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco to conduct background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Under the proposal, all commercial gun sales would produce two forms, a bill of sale that would record the details of the sale, and a certification from either a licensed firearms dealer or transfer agent recording that a successful background check has taken place. If someone who attempts to buy a firearm fails a background check, that would be reported to law enforcement officials. If the buyer passes the background check and purchases the firearm, the person who sells the gun would receive a copy of the form certifying that a successful background check was performed. Licensed gun dealers and transfer agents would not maintain these records, a provision intended to allay fears by Second Amendment advocates that the proposal could lead to the creation of a federal firearms registry. The record-keeping requirements of the proposal would be enforced by civil penalties. People who sell guns would be granted the same civil immunity as federally licensed firearms dealers, according to the memo...MORE