Economics Magazine

Media Headlines Ignore That The Republican Alternative Senate Gun Bill Had More Bipartisan Support

Posted on the 18 April 2013 by Susanduclos @SusanDuclos
By Susan Duclos
On Wednesday the Republican alternative to the so-called bipartisan Senate gun bill was voted down in the U.S. Senate with a vote of 52 to 48, with nine Democrats voting for it and just two Republicans voting against it, yet the headlines generated were all about the bill that favored gun control that failed with less bipartisan support.
What the mainstream media called "bipartisan support" for the Manchin-Toomey gun bill to expand background checks was a total of four moderate Republicans voting for it and four Democrats voting against it, with Harry Reid making five for procedural reasons so he could bring it back up at a later date in the Senate.
Feinstein's gun ban amendment and the large capacity ammunition ban, both had more bipartisan opposition than either had by way of support.
Why does the media ignore the fact that the Republican alternative, embedded in an earlier WuA piece, had more than double the bipartisan support than the Democrats' preferred bills?
The Republican alternative covered a variety of issues shown to be popular with the public, including mental health, school security, trafficking, straw purchases and resources for gun prosecutions. The GOP plan did all this while protecting the Second Amendment right to bears arms.
Read the summary of  Grassley-Cruz Alternative Senate Gun Bill.
Furthermore, the GOP alternative gun bill would have had support in the House of Representatives  to which some meaningful steps could have been taken to address gun violence and reduce said violence, which law enforcement and police have said that ammunition bans, guns bans and other gun control initiatives wouldn't do, yet the media is focused on just the failure to pass "gun control" rather than the failure to pass something that had a chance to actually become law.
Bottom line, the media continues to claim the Democratic gun control bill is "bipartisan" and completely ignores the fact that the Republican alternative gun bill had more bipartisan support and votes.
Democrats bit of their noses to spite their faces because of their own overreach and desire for "gun control" instead of a true desire to reduce the chance of mentally ill possessing guns and protecting our nation's children at school.
(Correction made to this post to reflect two Republicans voted against the GOP alternative rather than one)
Related:
Law Enforcement Survey: Armed Citizens, Mandatory Sentencing Will Lower Crime- Gun Laws Will Not


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