Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D primary school.
Democrat leaders in the House of Representatives have already scheduled a vote next week on so-called “red flag” legislation designed to protect weapons from potentially violent people. The Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives convened in an extraordinary session on Thursday to mark a list of eight additional bills against gun violence, including proposals to ban high-capacity magazines and raise the age for buying certain semi-automatic rifles.
Speaking at an event against gun violence in his hometown of San Francisco, Pelosi added to the list on Wednesday, saying Democrats in the House of Representatives will also consider legislation designed to better alert the public to active shooter situations.
“And then, when we go through them, we will hold a hearing and mark the ban on assault,” she added. “So we’re just trying to hit him in all sorts of ways.”
It is not clear what specific piece of legislation Pelosi meant. A well-known proposal, sponsored by Representative David Sicillin (DR.I.), would ban the sale, transfer, import and production of 205 models of semi-automatic rifles, which are listed in the bill. This will not prohibit gun owners who already own these firearms from using them.
It is also uncertain that the ban on assault weapons will receive a full vote, after Pelosi promised a mark-up at committee level. There are centrist Democrats who oppose such a ban, and only a few Republicans who are open to it. As Democrats control only a small majority in the lower house, party leaders will analyze the numbers to see if they have the votes to pass it on.
“We are looking at many legislative options to make our country safer and assessing where we have the votes,” a senior Democrat aide said Wednesday after Pelosi’s announcement.
While Democrat leaders have never ruled out a ban on assault weapons as part of their response to the Uwalde school shooting, it is still a surprise. The bill has no chance of passing through the 50-50 Senate, where the Republican opposition opposes virtually any new firearms restrictions, but guarantees it will never reach President Biden’s office.
In addition, Democrats face an extremely difficult medium-term environment, in which a number of incumbent Democrats are vulnerable to defeat in purple areas, where support for aggressive gun reforms could damage their chances. The ban on assault weapons, which are extremely popular in parts of the country, is one of those aggressive reforms, and Democratic leaders have excluded it from their initial list of reform proposals announced in the days after the May 24 shooting in Texas.
Still, the shooter in Uwalde used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 fourth-graders and two teachers. And this tragedy happened just 10 days after another lone gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, allegedly with a similar weapon.
Consecutive shootings in Uwalde and Buffalo have renewed interest in tackling gun violence in both halls. A bipartisan group of senators is in talks, seeking a compromise proposal that could win enough support from the Republican Party to escape fraud – talks that appear to focus on past checks, red flag laws and weapons safeguards. .
But Pelosi and House Democrats are not waiting for these discussions to bear fruit. Last year, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed two bills designed to expand scrutiny of the past, both of which went nowhere in the Senate. Now, driven by tragedy, they are reaching further into their menu of reforms. “Of course, we want the Senate to pass legislation to check the past, which will save more lives than any of the initiates we have,” Pelosi said.
The spokesman acknowledged that no reform proposal would put an end to gun violence in America. But she pointed out that the combination of proposals, removing the bull from different angles, will save countless lives.
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“I tell you all this [bills] because each of them is a place where we can save lives, “Pelosi said.
“I am very proud of the House; we paid our bills, “she continued. “I tell the senators:… The political survival of none of you is more important than the personal survival of America’s children and their families.
Updated: 6:45 p.m.
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