Rebel senator Joe Manchin dashes Joe Biden’s gun law hopes

Moves by Democrat leaders to force a Senate vote on tighter background checks for gun buyers appeared doomed.

A vigil at the Boulder County Courthouse on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Democrat leaders vowed to force a Senate vote on tighter background checks for gun buyers after 10 people died in a Colorado mass shooting but the move appeared doomed by opposition in their own ranks.

Despite renewed calls from President Joe Biden for action, Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, said on Thursday AEDT he could not back either of two bills aimed at regulating private weapons sales that were passed by the House of Representatives.

Senator Manchin’s opposition, combined with resistance to gun ownership curbs by Republicans, makes the chances of passing legislation remote in the evenly divided Senate, where 60 of the 100 votes are needed to avoid it being blocked.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, who has been charged with 10 counts of first degree murder after a shooting rampage in a supermarket in Boulder, had two high-powered weapons with him. Court papers show he bought a Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic rifle on March 16, six days before the attack. A ban on the sale of similar assault-style weapons by Boulder had been lifted by a state judge on March 12, although local officials could not say whether the ban would have prevented Alissa’s purchase.

Although the US had its lowest number of mass casualty shootings in a quarter of a century last year, almost 20,000 people were killed by guns, a rise of about 4000 from the previous year.

It is the biggest rise since records began in 1960.

“This Senate will be different,” said Chuck Schumer, the Democrat majority leader, pledging to end the inaction of the former Republican-controlled chamber on gun laws since 2010. “The Senate is going to debate and address the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”

However, when Senator Manchin was asked whether he could support legislation on closing loopholes in background checks on private and internet sales and gun fairs, he said: “No, not at all.”

Senator Manchin said he wanted to revive his 2013 compromise proposal drawn up with Pat Toomey, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, which would require checks for all commercial sales but not for family and friends giving or selling guns to each other. This failed to find support eight years ago.

Asked how Mr Biden would make changes, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said: “The President, who’s been in public life for more than 50 years, would be the first to tell you that just because you don’t get the legislation passed the first time doesn’t mean you quit trying.”

She said that he would prepare executive actions at the same time as urging legislation.

Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, told a Senate committee: “Every time there’s a shooting we play this ridiculous theatre where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders.”

More details emerged about the people killed in Boulder. They included Neven Stanisic, 23, the son of Serbian refugees from Bosnia; and Kevin Mahoney, 61, whose daughter Erika tweeted: “I am heartbroken to announce that my Dad, my hero, was killed in the King Soopers shooting in my hometown of Boulder, CO. My dad represents all things Love. I’m so thankful he could walk me down the aisle last summer. I am now pregnant. I know he wants me to be strong for his granddaughter.”

The Times