Toomey: Make progress in Congress to prevent more senseless deaths

Pat Toomey

is the Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania

The issue of gun violence has been with us for a long time, but it has clearly and painfully gotten worse in recent years. Our response to the devastating attack in Orlando must be part of our broader war against violent Islamist extremists and is by no means limited to the issue of guns. Nonetheless, the Orlando attack highlights the critical need for us to do more to prevent criminals, those with dangerous mental illnesses, and terrorists, from obtaining weapons.

It's an issue I have taken a keen interest in. In 2013, I was proud to join Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to support an expansion of background checks to prevent more people with criminal histories and dangerous mental illness from obtaining guns. The Manchin-Toomey background check legislation is the closest Congress has come in many years to passing anything on gun safety. I co-sponsored and voted for the Manchin-Toomey background checks again last year, and am doing so again during the current debate. Last year, I was deeply honored to receive an award from a group of parents and other survivors of the horrendous shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School for my leadership in this area.

Last December, the Senate considered two proposals to enhance efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining weapons. When dealing with this aspect of the gun issue, there are two criteria to be met. One is the essential need to stop terrorists from getting guns. The other is the need to safeguard the rights of innocent Americans who are mistakenly put on a terrorist watch list.

One of last year's proposals did nothing to protect innocent Americans, thousands of whom are wrongly put on such lists each year. The other proposal sought those safeguards, but made implementation of the prohibition on terrorist gun purchases too difficult. So they were both flawed. They also both lacked the bipartisan consensus needed for passage, so, as happens all too often in Washington, nothing got done. In order to make real progress, a new approach is needed.

That's why I have written a new bill that attempts to take the best features from both previous proposals. It will more effectively prevent terrorists from being able to purchase guns, while also protecting the rights of innocent Americans.

Under my bill, the attorney general can block any person on a court-approved terrorist watch list from buying or selling a gun or holding a license for firearms or explosives. It also provides an emergency process whereby the attorney general can obtain a court order to block a gun purchase by a likely terrorist who was recently discovered and has not yet been put on the watch list. But my bill also provided judicial review, so the attorney general is prevented from forcing wrongly accused law-abiding Americans to go through the embarrassment and expense of a court proceeding just to vindicate their constitutional rights. This is a basic due process right that every American citizen has and it must be protected.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on several gun measures this week. My bill might not be among them, but even if it is not, I continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find common ground, and I remain hopeful that we will.

In my 51/2 years in the Senate, there is no policy area that has been more frustrating to deal with than the issue of gun purchases. It is frustrating because lives are at stake. And it is frustrating because both sides of the debate rarely show any understanding of the values of the other side, or exhibit the political courage to stand up to their own side when it is wrong. I have done both.

I follow a basic principle: Distinguish between law-abiding citizens, who have constitutionally protected rights that must not be infringed, and those who have forfeited their constitutional rights because of their criminal behavior or intention, or because of their mental incapacity.

Background checks of the kind envisioned in the Manchin-Toomey bill or in my terrorism prevention bill do not infringe upon any law-abiding person's rights. Outright bans or confiscation of entire classes of commonly owned firearms are a very different matter. Such bans do not target criminals or terrorists. They sweep in millions of law-abiding Americans and prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights. That is not something I support. Nor is it something that has any chance of gaining the bipartisan support needed to become law.

My goal is to focus on what's achievable. I have encouraged leading gun-rights organizations to take a more commonsense approach, and I have demonstrated my willingness to oppose them when they do not. At the same time, I encourage those in the gun-safety community to do the same. Quite simply, we have two choices. We can take a one-sided partisan approach that will achieve nothing other than more useless political noise. Or we can work to forge bipartisan consensus. I choose the latter. It's the only way to make progress and prevent more senseless deaths.

@SenToomey