Activists listen as Senate Democrats call for action on gun control legislation after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school this week on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Thursday, May 26, 2022 .
Jabin Botsford | Washington Post | Getty Images
House Democrats will seek to advance gun control bills on Thursday in the wake of two high-profile mass shootings earlier this month.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D.N.Y., has called on committee lawmakers back from the break to mark gun legislation linking eight separate bills. In light of the shootings in Texas and New York state, a spokesman said, Nadler intends to bring a suite of new gun safety laws to the House floor “as soon as possible.”
The most recent and deadly attack happened last Tuesday, when an 18-year-old gunman 19 children and two teachers murdered At an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. That massacre happened exactly 10 days after another teenager 10 shoppers shot dead in a supermarket in a racist stampede In a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
The Democratic-led package will likely fail in the face of Republican opposition in the Senate. However, Democrats have acknowledged a hope – though slim – that bipartisan talks between senators could give lawmakers a chance to pass a more limited bill with support from both sides.
Nadler’s spokesman confirmed the list of bills that the House Judiciary Committee will consider under the broader “Protecting Our Kids Act.” they include:
- The Rise the Age Act
- stop gun trafficking act
- unrecoverable firearms act
- Ethan’s Law
- Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act
- Kimberly Vaughan Firearms Safety Storage Act
- Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act
- Protect Americans Act
The combined legislation would introduce a number of regulations on the sale or use of firearms and related equipment.
raise age act The purchase age of semi-automatic rifles will be increased from 18 to 21, while Protect Americans Act shall declare illegal the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of a large capacity magazine.
Ethan’s Law Will create new requirements for the storage of guns Provide tax credits for households, especially those with children, and safe storage devices.
While it’s unclear when Omnibus will hit the House floor, Nadler’s move to regroup the committee indicates the House’s leadership wants to vote on the legislation soon after lawmakers return from a break next week. While the Democrats are still behind them.
It is also not clear whether the House Speaker Nancy PelosicD-Calif., and his deputy, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Republican opposition to the package is a more definitive proposal.
Senate Republicans have blocked progress on any gun safety legislation for years. He opposed efforts to tighten gun rules even when he had a majority, and even now that he can threaten indefinite filibuster if Democrats can’t come up with the 60 votes needed to stop the stalling strategy.
GOP Sen Ted Cruz Four days after the massacre in his state, the Texas man said on Twitter that “taking guns from responsible, law-abiding Americans will not make our country any more secure.”
“It’s all too easy to shout about guns asking for answers about where our culture is failing,” Cruz said. A separate social media post on Saturday,
Anti-gun protesters protest outside the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center on May 27, 2022 in Houston, Texas.
Cecil Clocheret | AFP | Getty Images
Disapproval from Cruz and other Senate Republicans will likely pass any legislation Nadler and other House Democrats manage to pass. But that is not likely to deter Pelosi, who acknowledged the longstanding obstacles facing any gun control legislation in the Senate on Wednesday.
“We pray that the bipartisan talks just unfolding in the Senate will lead to an agreement on legislation that could save lives and be acted upon soon,” she wrote. A letter to fellow Democrats.
“On several occasions, the Democratic House has passed strong, common-sense gun-violence prevention legislation,” she said. “As we have repeatedly promised to courageous survivors of gun violence, we will never stop until the job is done.”
For his part, the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., has said it wants the nation to see that Senate Republicans vote for gun control legislation. He said he was ready to hold a vote on the bills, even if they were guaranteed to fail.
Schumer has also encouraged bipartisan backdoor gun law talks led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. He’s working with Republicans, including censors Pat Tomei, Susan Collins and Rob Portman, to be open to more modest firearms regulations.