Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., voted Wednesday in favor of the Protecting Our Kids Act, a package of federal gun safety proposals that are widely expected to stall in the Senate.
The legislation passed in the House by a vote of 223-204. Meanwhile, a small group of senators is negotiating a separate, and likely more limited, set of reforms to take up in the coming days.
The proposals follow calls for federal action on gun violence after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and the massacre at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, both of which occurred last month.
Welch cosponsored the Protecting Our Kids Act, which includes measures that would raise the age of semiautomatic centerfire rifle purchase from 18 to 21 years old, place limits on large capacity magazines and apply current federal regulations to ghost guns, which are firearms that are available for purchase online and can be assembled at home.
The House also passed a Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, a so-called red flag law, which would provide a framework for officials to remove firearms from dangerous individuals.
In an interview Wednesday, Welch expressed frustration with the slow pace of negotiations on federal gun safety measures.
“This situation we have, where parents no longer have the security that when they drop their kids off at school or put them on the bus, they’ll return home safely — I mean, what does it take for Congress or the Senate to act?” Welch asked. “It’s just appalling and it’s going on and on and on.”
The legislation would require 60 votes to pass the Senate, and Republican members have already signaled their opposition. But Welch, who is running for Vermont’s open U.S. Senate seat, said it was important to pass the act in the House nevertheless.
“It’s very frustrating to all of us that we can pass legislation to improve gun safety and protect kids that then gets stalled because of the Senate filibuster,” he said. “All of us are hopeful that the negotiations underway in the Senate will bear fruit. That remains to be seen. … We are going to proceed in the House where we have the opportunity to pass things that would make a difference.”
Welch said even the Protecting Our Kids Act is not enough, but it is necessary to compromise to pass any gun safety legislation at all. Welch supports banning assault weapons and comprehensive background checks, neither of which are included in the act.
“Even if it’s an extremely modest step — well short of the things I’ve supported — it’s worth it to take this step now that we can and make the progress now that we can,” Welch said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday morning about the need for additional gun control legislation. Expanding background checks, instituting a red flag law, targeting straw purchases and raising the legal age to purchase guns to 21 are “common sense,” Leahy said. He criticized the Senate for not taking further action.
“The Judiciary Committee acted,” Leahy said, referring to a package of gun reforms that passed the committee but failed on the Senate floor in 2012, when Leahy was the committee’s chair.
“I was proud to lead that, but the Senate did not. There were bipartisan proposals — proposals that I believe can muster bipartisan support again today. Support that acknowledges that there is a problem, and acknowledges that we can and must do something about it.”
Wednesday’s House vote followed a high-profile hearing in the House Oversight Committee, during which a parent of a child who was killed in the Uvalde shooting, as well as an 11-year-old student who survived the event, delivered emotional testimony to lawmakers.
Welch, who sits on the committee, did not attend in person. According to a spokesperson, he participated remotely at the start of the hearing and then appeared at noon in a debate sponsored by Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS for the Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidates. During the debate, he addressed gun safety and urged action from the Senate.
“We have to protect our kids,” Welch said in the debate. “A parent would go through a burning building, they’d go over shattered glass, to protect their child. Why can’t Congress?”
Clarification: This story has been clarified to reflect that, though Welch did not attend the House oversight hearing in person, he attended a portion of it remotely.
