Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is crafting the Republican alternative to a gun control package introduced last week by Senate Democrats. Grassley won’t say what will be included in the proposal, but in the past, he’s opposed extended background checks and an assault weapons ban. Grassley says he’d support requiring states to report to a federal database.
“If you’re including the 37 states that don’t report felons to the data bank in Washington, D.C., yes, that should happen,” Grassley says. “If states aren’t reporting all the people that have court-monitored mental illness, that should be in the data bank.” Grassley says there are gun control measures he’d like to see, though he did not offer a timeline for when his alternate proposal will be finished.
“I think it’s the original goal of banning certain guns that the president is supporting,” Grassley says. “A bill like that will never get to the president.” He was the only Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote for harsher penalties for people who buy guns for others who aren’t supposed to have them. The Senate plans to take up the Democrats’ gun-control package when it reconvenes in April.