House Judiciary Committee Will Return Early to Advance Gun Reform Bills

By David Boddiger | August 18, 2019 | 4:03pm

Congress

In the wake of multiple mass
shootings in recent weeks that have claimed dozens
of lives in several states, some lawmakers are willing to cut short their
vacations to return to Washington for more work on gun reform.

Politico reported that members of the House Judiciary
Committee will return to Capitol Hill early in September to move
three gun control bills forward following the massacres in El Paso, TX, and
Dayton, OH, among others.

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These include a ban of high-capacity magazines, like the one
used in Dayton, which allowed a gunman to shoot
26 people in just 32 seconds. The committee is expected to approve the ban
on Sept. 4, along with two other measures. Those include a process to prevent
people who are considered a risk from obtaining firearms, along with those
convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes.

Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler also plans to take up
the issue of military-style assault weapons on Sept. 25.

The House Judiciary Committee “refuses to sit idly by as
more communities are devastated by gun violence,” Nadler
said in a statement.

“For far too long, politicians in Washington have only
offered thoughts and prayers in the wake of gun violence tragedies. Thoughts
and prayers have never been enough. To keep our communities safe, we must act,”
Nadler said.

Last February, lawmakers in the House passed two other gun
control bills that have languished in the Senate, because Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to call them up for a vote. Those bills are H.R.
8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced
Background Checks Act of 2019.

Senate Republicans also have resisted calls to return early from
summer recess to pass gun reform in the wake of the recent mass shootings.

McConnell said the Senate would have “serious
discussions” about gun control when senators return, BuzzFeed News
reported. But the news site also
noted that, “McConnell and Senate Republicans have successfully blocked any
meaningful gun control measures from becoming law over the past two decades.”

Politico also reported that it’s hard to tell what Donald
Trump would do if lawmakers put gun reform legislation on his desk to sign. As
Splinter’s Caitlin Cruz noted on Friday, Trump has been focused
on talking about mental illness since the recent mass shootings.

He told reporters, “We’re going to look at that very
closely,” referring to the “whole gun situation.” He added: “These people are
mentally ill, and nobody talks about that,” referring to the shooters.

Trump, who visited both Dayton and El Paso following the
shootings, said he recently had spoken
with representatives of the National Rifle Association “so that their very
strong views can be fully represented and respected.”