Coburn’s block may change strategy for gun bill

One Democratic leader suggested Tuesday that a gun-purchasing measure prioritized after the April shootings at Virginia Tech may move forward despite the objections of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who recently blocked a push to fast-track the bill to passage.

Shepherded to the floor by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the bill would provide grant money to states to expand the national database that gun dealers use for background checks. Coburn objected to unanimous passage of the bill last week, protesting its price tag and potential effect on veterans who buy guns.

{mosads}Schumer, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and other Democrats are aiming for targeted changes that would resolve Coburn’s concerns, but the Democrats’ caucus vice chairman appeared open Tuesday to trying another approach.

“We’ve tried to negotiate,” Schumer said, adding that talks with Coburn are “not getting that far. We might have to bring it to a vote.”

Taking a recorded vote on the gun database bill could complicate its initially strong prospects. The National Rifle Association (NRA) supports the bill, which its board member and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) helped to craft, but the Gun Owners of America (GOA) has backed Coburn and mobilized its grassroots against the measure.

Whether Republicans and red-state Democrats end up navigating the pressure of a high-profile vote that could alienate gun owners depends on two principal sticking points. Coburn has criticized the bill’s approval of billions of dollars in new spending without offsets, though Democrats and allied groups point out that the measure does not appropriate and leaves room for offsets.

Coburn also has objected to what he and the GOA — which dubbed the bill the “Veterans Disarmament Act” — believe is the risk of inadvertently placing veterans treated for mental illness into the background-check system, thus endangering their ability to buy a gun.

The Military Order of the Purple Heart and the American Legion both have backed Coburn’s effort.

But GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt said his group remains opposed to the background-check system in general, viewing it as an infringement on the civil liberties and privacy of gun owners.

“This would be an objection we’d have even after all these [concerns of Coburn’s] are taken care of,” Pratt said. He expressed surprise that advocates of the bill have “raised objections about listening to a phone call of Abdul in Yemen who’s a suspect in a terror case, but raised no objections” about expanding the background-check database.

One Democratic aide close to the talks acknowledged that Coburn’s hold may not be the last roadblock the bill faces to fast-tracking. “If we appease these objections, I don’t know that more wouldn’t surface,” the aide said.

Indeed, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said he has received a high volume of contacts from constituents alarmed about the bill’s effect on gun buyers’ rights.

“At this point, I’m not holding the bill,” Crapo said. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Chris W. Cox, chief lobbyist for the NRA, said his group supports the bill as a means to move toward the “fair and instant” background-check database that Congress first set up 14 years ago under the so-called “Brady bill.”

“We saw veterans go into the system unfairly with no way to get their rights restored,” Cox said in an interview.

“Once they’re in the system, there’s no way to get out. While not perfect, this legislation would go a long way towards helping to address some concerns [with the database].”

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) has championed the bill on the House side, helping it toward passage in June without a recorded vote. McCarthy spokesman George Burke said the House is likely to approve the Senate’s version of the bill in order to avert a conference, but he also warned that only narrowly tailored changes would keep the bill’s supporters on board.

“We can’t keep coming back every week,” Burke said. “The message has been relayed to Coburn that this is not going to be never-ending.”

The president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Paul Helmke, said he remains optimistic that the Senate impasse can be cleared, ascribing it to the everyday difficulty of moving a complex bill through Congress. While the NRA has not tapped its extensive grassroots membership to help the background-check measure pass, Helmke said the premier gun group’s support was enough.

“Their concern is that some of their grassroots feels the same as the GOA on this, and they don’t want to risk alienating some of their members,” Helmke said. “They’re taking the right position here, which is that not everybody should get a gun.”

Schumer and fellow Democrats plan to examine their options for moving the bill sometime after next week’s Columbus Day recess, a Democratic leadership aide said.

“While continuing to reach out, Sens. Schumer and Reid may eventually sit down and look at other strategies to move this forward,” the leadership aide said.