Senate panel backs crackdown on clandestine gun sales

[struggle4progress]

By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON | Thu Mar 7, 2013 6:12pm EST

(Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday backed President Barack Obama's call to crack down on the clandestine trafficking of firearms, marking the first votes in Congress on gun-control since a school massacre last year prompted calls for action.

On a largely party-line vote of 11-7, the Democratic-led committee approved a bill to make it a federal crime to engage in "straw purchasing," or buying of guns on behalf of those who are prohibited from owning them.

"It is designed to prevent criminals from using straw purchasers who can pass a background check and then hand those firearms to criminals," Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in touting his bill. It carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The proposal was the first of four gun-control measures that are expected to pass the committee, setting up fights in the full Senate where Republicans strongly oppose a proposed ban on assault weapons and have doubts about a plan to expand background checks on prospective gun buyers ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/07/us-usa-guns-senate-idUSBRE92607I20130307