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U.S. NEWSWednesday 22 June 2016

Republican senator seeks bipartisan support for gun deal 

                                                                                                                                  ALAN                 FRAM          of around 2,800 people
                                                                                                                                                                     on those lists are foreign-
                                                                                                                                  MARY JALONICK                      ers, who are mostly unable
                                                                                                                                                                     to purchase firearms in
                                                                                                                                  Associated Press                   the U.S.
                                                                                                                                                                     Under Collins’ proposal,
                                                                                                                                  WASHINGTON (AP) — A                Americans denied guns
                                                                                                                                                                     could appeal their rejec-
                                                                                                                                  moderate Republican sen-           tions to federal courts. The
                                                                                                                                                                     FBI would be notified if
                                                                                                                                  ator sought broad biparti-         someone who’s been on
                                                                                                                                                                     the broader terrorist watch
                                                                                                                                  san support Tuesday for a          list in the past five years
                                                                                                                                                                     buys a gun, but could not
                                                                                                                                  compromise to block gun            stop the purchase.
                                                                                                                                                                     Even after 49 victims died
                                                                                                                                  purchases by some sus-             on a June 12 Orlando ram-
                                                                                                                                                                     page by a sympathizer of
                                                                                                                                  pected terrorists, a day af-       Islamic State extremists,
                                                                                                                                                                     neither party has seemed
                                                                                                                                  ter the chamber split along        overly eager to plunge for-
                                                                                                                                                                     ward into a compromise.
                                                                                                                                  party lines to derail far more     Such a deal might anger
                                                                                                                                                                     their most loyal voters, NRA-
                                                                                                                                  sweeping proposals.                backing conservatives and
                                                                                                                                                                     pro-gun-control liberals,
                                                                                                                                  Senate Majority Leader             and shield the other side
                                                                                                                                                                     from negative campaign
                                                                                                                                  Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,            ads.
                                                                                                                                                                     Underscoring that, senators
                                                                                                                                  said he would allow a vote         backing Collins empha-
                                                                                                                                                                     sized the political risks they
                                                                                                                                  on the proposal by Sen.            were taking. Sen. Heidi
                                                                                                                                                                     Heitkamp, D-N.D., said they
                                                                                                                                  Susan Collins, R-Maine, but        were taking “a pretty ter-
                                                                                                                                                                     rifying, in some ways, first
                                                                                                                                  stopped short of endors-           step into trying to achieve
                                                                                                                                                                     bipartisan consensus.”
                                                                                                                                  ing the measure itself. The        Senate Minority Leader
                                                                                                                                                                     Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised
                                                                                                                                  package seemed to face             lawmakers involved with
                                                                                                                                                                     Collins for having “serious
                                                                                                                                  an uphill climb, thanks to         bipartisan talks,” but didn’t
                                                                                                                                                                     endorse her plan.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, right, introduces Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., during a news conference                                 the hurdles of election-year
on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 21, 2016, to unveil a new gun legislation proposal.                                                                        Other top Democrats
From left are Sen. Bill Nelson, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Sen. Jeff Flake,                             politics and opposition            seemed to revel in the divi-
R-Ariz., and Collins.                                                                                                                                                sions Collins’ proposal were
                                                                                                                                  from the National Rifle As-        causing between the NRA
                                                                                                           (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)                                     and the GOP, whose mem-
                                                                                                                                  sociation and Gun Owners           bers usually cast strong
                                                                                                                                                                     gun-rights votes.
                                                                                                                                  of America.                        “What potentially is hap-
                                                                                                                                                                     pening here, is Republi-
                                                                                                                                  Flanked by eight sena-             cans are finally breaking”
                                                                                                                                                                     from the NRA, said Sen.
                                                                                                                                  tors — three Republicans,          Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., his
                                                                                                                                                                     chamber’s No. 3 Demo-
                                                                                                                                  four Democrats and a               cratic leader. “I’m glad
                                                                                                                                                                     it’s happened, whether it’s
                                                                                                                                  Democratic-leaning inde-           politically advantageous
                                                                                                                                                                     or not.”q
                                                                                                                                  pendent — Collins told re-

                                                                                                                                  porters that mass shootings

                                                                                                                                  in Orlando, Florida, and

                                                                                                                                  San Bernardino, California,

                                                                                                                                  were “a call for compro-

                                                                                                                                  mise, a plea for bipartisan

                                                                                                                                  action.”

                                                                                                                                  “If we can’t pass this, it

                                                                                                                                  truly is a broken system up

                                                                                                                                  here,” said Sen. Lindsey

                                                                                                                                  Graham, R-S.C.

                                                                                                                                  On Monday, the Senate

                                                                                                                                  rejected rival Democratic

                                                                                                                                  and Republican propos-

                                                                                                                                  als for keeping guns from

                                                                                                                                  known and suspected ter-

                                                                                                                                  rorists.

                                                                                                                                  The government’s overall

                                                                                                                                  terrorist watch list has 1 mil-

                                                                                                                                  lion people on it.

                                                                                                                                  Collins’ measure would

                                                                                                                                  let federal authorities bar

                                                                                                                                  gun sales to two narrower

                                                                                                                                  groups of suspected terror-

                                                                                                                                  ists: the no-fly list with 81,000

                                                                                                                                  people and the selectee

                                                                                                                                  list with 28,000 people. Se-

                                                                                                                                  lectees can fly after unusu-

                                                                                                                                  ally intensive screening.

                                                                                                                                  All but a combined total
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