List includes Cheney and Kinzinger.
QUICK FACTS:
- Fourteen Republican House representatives on Friday afternoon sided with Democrats in voting 234-193 to pass the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which expands background checks and incentivizes “red flag” laws, representing the first new gun restrictions in the United States in nearly 30 years.
- All 220 House Democrats supported the bill, with all ‘No’ votes only coming from Republicans.
- The Senate had voted 64-34 on Tuesday night to advance the gun control bill to the House, with 14 Republican senators joining the majority Democrat-led effort in what The New York Times called “the most significant action in decades to overhaul the nation’s gun laws.”
- American Faith reported how the legislation will intensify background checks, distribute millions to states implementing red flag laws, and close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by prohibiting people convicted of domestic abuse against an intimate partner from gun access.
- The National Rifle Association (NRA) opposed the bill, saying in a statement that the new law “can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, & use fed dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state & local politicians” and that it “can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, and use federal dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state and local politicians. This bill leaves too much discretion in the hands of government officials and also contains undefined and overbroad provisions inviting interference with our constitutional freedoms.”
- Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law immediately.
LIST OF 14 REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED ‘YES’ FOR GUN BILL:
| Chabot | Republican | Ohio | YEA |
| Cheney | Republican | Wyoming | YEA |
| Fitzpatrick | Republican | Pennsylvania | YEA |
| Gonzales, Tony | Republican | Texas | YEA |
| Gonzalez (OH) | Republican | Ohio | YEA |
| Jacobs (NY) | Republican | New York | YEA |
| Joyce (OH) | Republican | Ohio | YEA |
| Katko | Republican | New York | YEA |
| Kinzinger | Republican | Illinois | YEA |
| Meijer | Republican | Michigan | YEA |
| Rice (SC) | Republican | South Carolina | YEA |
| Salazar | Republican | Florida | YEA |
| Turner | Republican | Ohio | YEA |
| Upton | Republican | Michigan | YEA |
BACKGROUND:
The Washington Times outlined the bill’s provisions:
- Incentives for states to adopt red-flag laws or other crisis intervention programs.
- An expansion of the definition of domestic violence to close the “boyfriend loophole” by including dating relationships. It blocks people with such convictions from gun ownership.
- Eligibility for gun ownership for individuals with domestic violence charges after five years provided they keep a clean criminal record.
- A felony designation for individuals who purchase guns for those who cannot legally buy or own them.
- An expansion of federal background checks to include state juvenile records and to make it illegal to sell guns or ammunition to people with felony juvenile records.
- A requirement for individuals who repeatedly buy and sell firearms to license as gun dealers.
- An additional $100 million in taxpayer funds for the federal background check system.
- A $2 billion allocation to the Education Department for mental health and school safety.
- $1 billion in grants for mental health programs to be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
