Protesters gather outside Sen. Tillis’ Raleigh office to criticize gun safety bill
.jpg "Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., center, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 9, 2022. Tillis was among a group of four Republican and Democratic senators who hammered out a bipartisan agreement on gun reform after two weeks of closed-door talks.")
Protesters gathered outside of Sen. Thom Tillis’ office in Raleigh Friday morning because of his work on a gun safety bill that passed the U.S. Senate Thursday night.
They held signs calling Tillis a traitor and a Republican in name only. They said Tillis was stripping people of their gun rights.
Some wore black and yellow masks, colors often associated with the Proud Boys, a far-right, white nationalist group connected to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Tillis is one of four senators who worked together to create a bill meant to expand access to mental health care nationwide and make changes to the country’s gun laws in an attempt to cut down on its number of mass shootings.
Both of North Carolina’s senators, Tillis and Richard Burr, voted Thursday with 13 other Republicans to help Senate Democrats pass the bill through the chamber. They immediately faced backlash on social media for their decision, including from their own colleagues.
Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from western Charlotte, tweeted out a list of Republicans who voted in favor of the bill with the word “Betrayal.”
For Burr, his decision to vote yes won’t hurt his political career. He plans to retire at the expiration of his current term this year.
Tillis won’t face re-election again until 2026.
Gun safety
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, made it his mission to change the country’s gun laws after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two adults in their elementary school in May.
He and Tillis teamed up with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, to find changes that both parties could feel comfortable passing.
Those changes include expanding mental health care funding, providing incentives for the states to pass red flag laws, expanding domestic violence protections to include intimate and romantic partners, instead of only spouses, providing better training for school resource officers, performing more extensive background checks on gun purchasers under 21 and requiring background checks for guns purchased in private sales.
Tillis didn’t speak on Thursday on the Senate floor about the bill but told reporters a day earlier that it would “help communities be safer.”
House response
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Thursday night to immediately take up the bill Friday morning.
Rep. Richard Hudson, from Moore County led the Republican opposition to the bill Friday.
“Our highest calling as a member of Congress is to protect the Constitution,” Hudson said on the House floor, “and that is where this legislation sent to us by the Senate falls short.”
Hudson said more than 12 other pieces of legislation had been introduced by House members that would better work on curbing the country’s gun violence while still protecting Americans’ Second Amendment Rights.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from Hendersonville, has also tweeted his opposition.
Rep. Ted Budd, a gun store and shooting range owner in Rural Hall and Republican U.S. Senate candidate, put out a statement late Thursday.
He said he believes there are worthy provisions in the bill including the youth background checks, mental health and improving the national background check system, but Budd also felt like there should be improvements to the bill and offered amendments to provide safeguards.
“Unfortunately, my amendments were rejected by House Democrats,” Budd said. “Therefore, I will not support this legislation because I am concerned that it will have the unintended effect of infringing on the due process rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Rep. Alma Adams, a Democrat from Charlotte, said she will vote yes on the bill.
“As a survivor of domestic violence, I know closing the ‘boyfriend loophole’ will save lives,” Adams said. “Is this gun compromise perfect? No. I wish it included the assault weapons ban I’ve supported in every Congress. However, I’m voting yes today for the lives this bill will save.”
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
