WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday said he’s hopeful his gun background check legislation could be revived in Congress, but he has received no new firm commitments of support from his colleagues or commitments for a vote from Senate leadership.
“I’ve spent a lot of hours on the phone and communicating other ways with my colleagues this week,” Toomey said on “Meet The Press.” “I do think there are some members who were not supportive in the past and are reconsidering. I haven’t gotten anyone who said, ‘Yes, sign me up,’ but there are definitely members who are reconsidering. The president’s expression of support for strengthening our background check system is very constructive.”
Toomey was the Republican leader of the bipartisan push for gun reform after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In 2013, he and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., pushed a bill, known as “Manchin-Toomey,” that would have expanded firearm background checks to online sales and gun shows, but the measure couldn’t get through the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. It failed to move forward by a vote of 54-46.
The legislation was brought up for a vote again in 2015 after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, but actually lost support, failing by a vote of 48-50.
“I certainly hope we can succeed with another run at it,” Toomey said.
Toomey said he is planning on speaking with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week about the possibilities of setting up yet another vote, but acknowledged there are challenges in getting such a bill to the floor. But, he added that if he was able to show the legislation could receive 60 votes, it would be a “very compelling argument.”
Even with his new push, Toomey did acknowledge on Sunday that he doesn’t think passing his background check legislation would have necessarily prevented any of the mass shootings the nation has seen in recent years.
Manchin-Toomey was “not going to solve all problems, and we never suggested that it would,” he said.