Gun Debate Advances as Toomey Brokers Deal

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey (R) and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) co-sponsored an across-the-aisle bill Wednesday that expands background checks for gun buyers.

"Criminal background checks are just common sense," Toomey said in a statement on his website. "If you pass a criminal background check, you can buy a gun. It's the people who fail a criminal or mental health background check that we don't want having guns. That can be done without infringing on law-abiding people's gun rights. And we ought to do it."

According to USA Today, the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act would require criminal background checks for firearms purchased at gun shows and online and penalize states that do not add records of felons and the mentally ill to the National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS).

As previously reported by Patch, Pennsylvania did not add mental health records to the NICS until this year. After 18 months of lobbying, State Rep. Todd Stephens (R-151) of Horsham convinced the state police to connect the records from the Pennsylvania Instant Check System to the national database.

Toomey's bill also explicitly bans the federal government from creating a national firearms registry, and imposes serious criminal penalties (a felony with up to 15 years in prison) on any person who misuses or illegally retains firearms records.

The National Rifle Association swiftly responded to the proposed amendment, with a statement that read the following:

"Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools. While the overwhelming rejection of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg's "universal" background check agenda is a positive development, we have a broken mental health system that is not going to be fixed with more background checks at gun shows."

The bill will be included in a package of gun legislation that hits the Senate floor for a procedural vote on Thursday, according to USA Today.