In an editorial one year ago, after 58 concert-goers were shot and killed by a gunman in Las Vegas, after the 17 deaths from a gun massacre in a Parkland, Fla., high school just a month earlier, and after so many other mass shootings, we wrote this about the prospects for passage of reasonable federal gun control legislation: "It will take political commitment and persistence to replace existing congressmen and senators who stand in the way with elected leaders who will represent the will of the people, not the NRA.”

It’s happened.

This week the U.S. House of Representatives, now in Democratic control because of the 2018 election, passed two gun-control bills that would take important and reasonable steps in trying to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. Under prior Republican control, these measures could not even get to a vote.

On Feb. 27 the House passed, on a 240-190 vote, a bill that would expand the FBI background check process to include purchases made at gun shows, online or in other private settings, not just at licensed dealers. The new law would close a loophole that has allowed individuals who could not pass a background check to buy guns online or at gun shows.

It makes so much sense, it is a wonder that most Republicans remained in lockstep against it. Their fear is that the National Rifle Association will characterize even reasonable gun-control votes as an attack on Second Amendment rights, resulting in devastating political attack ads and loss of NRA support that can leave a conservative candidate vulnerable to a primary challenge.

That can only change when candidates fear voter reaction more than the NRA, and that day is coming.

A day later the House passed, 228-198, legislation that would extend from three days to 10 days the time for the government to complete a background check on gun purchases. Currently, a sale can go through if the FBI does not complete the background check in the three days.

This has been called the Charleston loophole, because it allowed Dylann Roof, who would have been blocked because of a past drug-related arrest, to obtain a handgun after the three-day limit passed. Roof, a white supremacist, later used it to kill nine people during a prayer service at a black church in 2015.

A small group of Republicans had the courage to do the right thing, with eight GOP House members voting in favor of requiring universal background checks and three in favor of extending the wait time limit to 10 days.

Eastern Connecticut's congressman, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, voted in favor of the bills.

Unfortunately, the bills appear to have no chance in the Senate, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, is unlikely to even allow them to get to a vote.

But the passage of the bills is still significant. Polls show such reasonable steps to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys are popular with a solid majority of American voters. In 2020, Democrats can make the case that the only thing standing in the way of them finally becoming law is the Republican Senate and president. This will resonate with many voters.

Republicans make the argument that these measures would have made no difference in many of the mass shootings the nation has suffered through because most of the gunmen had passed background checks and purchased their weapons legally.

This is like saying that air bags and seat belts should not be required because people would survive most accidents without them. If one deranged person with a desire for mass murder is prevented from getting a weapon to do it, these laws are well worth it. And they would only be a minor inconvenience for law-abiding gun purchasers.

While this editorial board would like to see tougher federal gun laws, similar to those passed in Connecticut in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting massacre in 2012 that outlawed the sale of semi-automatic assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines, it also recognizes the political realities. Such measures do not have the broad support that expanded background checks have and Democrats are smart not too push the envelope too far on this issue.

But the passage of these House bills is something to celebrate and places down a marker for future elections.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.