This is what Americans have been fearing for a long time… and it’s finally happening. House Democrats took their first steps Wednesday in an attack on the Second Amendment.
The final goal? Disarm all Americans.
A key House committee approved a bill to require background checks for all sales and transfers of firearms — even private sales. It’s the first step by majority Democrats to tighten gun laws after eight years of Republican rule.
Wednesday’s vote came a day before the one-year anniversary of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.
The vote on the bill came after a contentious, daylong hearing in which Republicans offered a series of amendments, all of which were blocked by Democrats.
Republicans said they were ready to offer additional amendments when Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler shut off debate around 8 p.m., 10 hours after the hearing began.
The GOP complained that Democrats are steamrolling the bill without any compromise.
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the panel’s senior Republican, called Nadler’s action “disturbing” and said it did not bode well for the two-year congressional session.
“If this is the way the chairman wants to begin this session of Congress, I really wonder where we go from here” and whether the two parties can work together, Collins said.
Freshman Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., displayed a large cup that read, “The Second Amendment is my gun permit.” Steube was among several Republicans who tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill. Republicans pushed to allow exceptions for victims of domestic violence and transfers among family members, but were dismissed by Democrats on that issue as well.
The House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the bill 23-15, sending it to the House floor. If approved by the full House, the bill would be the most significant gun-control legislation approved by either chamber of Congress in at least a decade.
“This isn’t a debate, it’s a show,” said Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla.
“Let’s move forward,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.