House Passes Gun Bills Despite Likelihood of Failure in Senate

The House passed a set of gun control bills on Wednesday and Thursday as bipartisan Senate negotiators continued to work out a deal that could pass in the evenly-divided chamber. 

On Wednesday, 5 Republicans and all but 2 Democrats voted to pass the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” a package that would raise the minimum age to buy certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, establish new federal punishments for trafficking guns and high-capacity magazines, and support local buyback programs, among other things. On Thursday morning, another near-party-line vote advanced a red flag law that would allow courts nationwide to take guns from those deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. 

Coverage across the spectrum agreed that neither bill was likely to pass in the Senate, where senators continued to work on their own bipartisan compromise. While House Democrats are able to pass legislation with a simple majority, the evenly-divided Senate’s filibuster rules require the approval of at least 10 Republican senators for most bills.