House passage of gun safety bills reflects political shift

WASHINGTON — The House put on a display of Democratic priorities this week with two bills to bolster background checks on firearms purchases, showing just how quickly the politics of gun control have turned. Just a few years ago, says Kris Brown, the president of one of the nation’s leading gun violence prevention groups, there was a “sense of hopeless” after a divided Congress tried — and failed — to change gun laws following the mass shooting of 20 young children and six adults at Newtown Elementary School in Connecticut. But a new generation of teen leaders “flipped” public sentiment after the shooting last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she said, helping to elect lawmakers in 2018 who are willing to buck the powerful gun lobby, including the National Rifle Association. “We’re at a completely different time,” said Brown, the president of the Brady, the group formerly known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The group changed its name this week on the 25th anniversary of implementing its landmark background check bill. Parkland “reignited something in people,” she said in an interview after the House votes on Thursday. Democrats — and some Republicans — “understand this is where American sentiment is going and what people want.” On Thursday, the House approved legislation to allow a review period of up to 10 days for background checks on firearms purchases. Democrats led passage, 228-198, with a handful of defections and scant Republican support. The bill stems from the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, where nine black worshippers died at the hands of a white supremacist. A faulty background check allowed the gunman’s firearm purchase after the required three-day review period expired. On Wednesday, the House approved a more ambitious measure — bipartisan legislation requiring federal background checks

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