Republican 'Encouraged' Congress Can Compromise on Gun Violence Bill

Representative Peter Meijer, a Michigan Republican, said he is "encouraged" by bipartisan Senate talks about legislation to address gun violence, despite voting against the largely partisan Protecting Our Kids Act on Wednesday.

Just five Republicans representatives—Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Fred Upton of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Chris Jacobs of New York—voted for the gun restrictions bill, which passed through the House. Democrats Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon joined the vast majority of GOP House members and voted against it. The bill is expected to go nowhere in the Senate.

In a Thursday phone interview, Meijer told Newsweek that he voted against the legislation because Democratic House leaders had "dusted off" previous partisan bills without GOP input. He expressed greater optimism about the discussions taking place in the Senate regarding a potential bipartisan compromise to address the problem of mass shootings and gun violence.

Meijer said he believes there can be areas of compromise around "how do we how do we deal with mental health in this country." He said that "not a single American" saw the recent mass shootings and wasn't "utterly heartbroken at the horrors."

"I'm encouraged by what we've seen in the Senate. I think that there are some senators who want to get something done," Meijer said, noting that even some Democratic senators had "expressed reservations" about measures included in the bill approved by the House on Wednesday.

In the aftermath of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told CNN he was "hopeful" that bipartisan discussions could result in a compromise to address gun violence.

McConnell said he had "encouraged" GOP Senator John Cornyn of Texas "to talk with [Democratic] Senator [Chris] Murphy [of Connecticut] and [Democratic] Senator [Kyrsten] Sinema [of Arizona] and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that is directly related to the problem. I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution."

Cornyn later suggested that he had been given a nearly impossible task.

"When Senator McConnell asked me to be sort of the point person on this, I thought to myself, 'Well, this is like [President] Joe Biden appointing [Vice President] Kamala Harris border czar,' I accepted the responsibility with a little trepidation," he told Politico.

While Democrats are largely supportive of increasing restrictions on gun sales, as well as expanding background checks and "red-flag" laws, most GOP lawmakers regularly oppose most bills targeting guns. Republicans point to the Second Amendment, which states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Gun reform advocates often argue that the first part of the Amendment about a "regulated Militia" is no longer valid because the U.S. now has a strong and well-trained standing military.

Polling shows that majorities of Americans support a number of stronger restrictions on guns. However, when some of these proposals have been put forward as ballot measures in multiple states, they have sometimes failed to pass or only narrowly succeeded.