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Hatch and Lee Vote with GOP on Gun Measures

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch addresses GOP delegates at the Utah Republican State Convention.
Bob Nelson
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch addresses GOP delegates at the Utah Republican State Convention.

In the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, the U.S. Senate rejected several gun measures. In procedural votes Monday, Republican Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee of Utah supported two GOP proposals and opposed two Democratic ones.

The Democratic proposals rejected by Utah’s Senators would have expanded mandatory background checks and would allow the U.S. Attorney General to prevent someone suspected of terrorism from buying a gun. They supported a Republican proposal which would require a court to find probable cause before blocking a gun sale. They also supported a GOP amendment to improve an existing background check system.

In a statement, Senator Hatch said he supported those measures because they would address gaps in the law while still protecting constitutional due process. He said before the vote that he believed there was common ground between the two sides, but the Senators voted almost entirely down party lines.

Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ
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