Senators, Including Ayotte, Unveil Gun-Control Compromise

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U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, flanked by colleagues including Sen. Kelly Ayotte, )behind left) at press conference on gun control.

Handful of Senators have called for a compromise bill that would ban those on no-fly lists from buying guns.

Junior Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, joined a handful of Senators backing the bill that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has proposed. Roger Wood monitored a Tuesday news conference led off by Collins who called the group of Senators’ support critical at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Collin’s colleague Angus King, I-Maine, is also backing the compromise. Ayotte, who is facing a tough re-election challenge from New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, also supports compromise legislation. She voted yesterday to support anti-terrorist gun control legislation while opposing parts of it, in order to advance the debate on the compromise legislation proposed by Maine’s Collins.

As expected, Monday’s vote defeated the original legislation, and it’s unclear whether the compromise will survive in an environment that pits advocates of gun control against the National Rifle Association. Florida Senator Bill Nelson made strongly worded comments during the news conference, an impassioned speech during the news conference.

The Collins compromise would affect some 109,000 Americans, those on a no-fly list and those on a selectee list, one that mandates an extra security screening before boarding an aircraft. For InDepthNH.org, I’m Roger Wood.