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This was a vote on H.R. 8, a bill to mandate universal background checks for gun purchases.
Conservatives believe the words of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution speak clearly for all Americans in all times: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The right of all Americans to keep and bear arms is protected by those words. It shall not be infringed by the U.S. government. But a bipartisan group of lawmakers has shown in this vote that they do not respect the Constitution’s authority.
The so-called “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019” would require background checks for nearly all gun purchases, including private transactions, with narrow exceptions for transfers between family members or for borrowing a gun to go hunting. Federal law already requires background checks for firearm purchases from licensed dealers and prohibits gun sales across state lines. What this new bill will do is make a gun transfer to your friend a felony.
Proponents of gun control measures argue sensible regulations are needed to stop crime and prevent gun violence. But the federal background check database has already demonstrated its ineffectiveness, with millions of records reported missing due to lax state reporting. Background checks that do succeed cannot predict future behavior and cannot catch a potential criminal who has no history of crime or mental illness. Further, the bill is unenforceable. It relies on individuals engaged in private gun sales to self-report their actions, which criminals will not do. Even the Obama-era Department of Justice concluded universal background checks are ineffective without “requiring gun registration.”
This bill will impose burdensome and unnecessary regulations on law-abiding firearms owners who want to sell their guns to other law-abiding citizens.
The House of Representatives voted to pass the Bipartisan Background Checks Act on February 27, 2019, at 3:44 p.m. in a roll call vote of 240 – 190.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
CR position: NO
U.S. House of Representatives*
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
YEAs — 240
| Adams Aguilar Allred Axne Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brindisi Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Cummings Cunningham Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Engel Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi García (IL) Garcia (TX) | Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Green (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Heck Higgins (NY) Hill (CA) Himes Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Hurd (TX) Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kind King (NY) Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Luján Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Mast Matsui McAdams McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Murphy Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Norcross | O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Richmond Rose (NY) Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sánchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stevens Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Underwood Upton Van Drew Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Yarmuth |
NAYs — 190
| Abraham Aderholt Allen Amash Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bergman Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Bost Brady Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Cook Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson (OH) Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Duffy Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Ferguson Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Golden Gonzalez (OH) | Gooden Gosar Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Hartzler Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Holding Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Hunter Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) Kinzinger Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marshall Massie McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McKinley Meadows Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mullin Newhouse Norman Nunes Olson Palazzo | Palmer Pence Perry Peterson Posey Ratcliffe Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rooney (FL) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Rutherford Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Shimkus Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smucker Spano Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Turner Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Waltz Watkins Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yoho Young Zeldin |
Not Voting — 2
| Frankel | Katko |
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
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