WASHINGTON (AP) – House is working fast to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children.
Partisan positions were made clear at a Judicial Committee hearing on Thursday on legislation that would raise the age limit for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 years old. The bill would also make it a federal offense to import, manufacture, or own high-capacity magazines and create a grant program to repurchase those magazines.
It is based on the executive action of the administration that bans fast-acting “bump-stock” devices and “ghost guns” that are mounted without serial numbers.
Democratic legislation, called the Protection of Our Children Act, was quickly added to the legislative record after last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Plenary voting could arrive next week.
However, with almost all Republicans in opposition, the House’s action will be mostly symbolic, leaving only lawmakers on gun control before this year’s election. The Senate is taking a different direction, with a bipartisan group striving to reach a compromise on arms security legislation that can gain enough support from the GOP to become law. These talks are making “rapid progress,” according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators.
New York MP Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on Thursday defended his chamber’s proposals as popular among most Americans. He rejected Republican criticism.
“Are you saying it’s too early to take action? Are we ‘politicizing’ these tragedies to implement new policies?” Nadler said. “It’s been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years from Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“Too early? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee’s ranking Republican, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted that the House bill would do nothing to stop the mass shootings.
“We have to take ourselves seriously to understand why this is still happening. Democrats are always determined to reduce the rights of law-abiding citizens instead of trying to understand why this evil is happening,” Jordan said. “Until we find out why, we will always mourn the loss without facing the problem. Our job is to find out why.”
A key feature of the House bill requires that those who buy semi-automatic weapons be at least 21 years old. Only six states require anyone at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters from Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, were both 18 years old and used an AR-15 style weapon.
Deputy Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Said it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy “an assault weapon.”
“Is this what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? They have a problem, which means we have a problem, which means these 19 kids and their parents and these two teachers have a problem, forever, “Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde.
RNC MP Dan Bishop noted a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found it unconstitutional to ban California from selling semi-automatic weapons to adults under the age of 21.
“I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you will not be intimidated into stripping the fundamental rights of Americans,” Bishop said.
The hearing echoed the demands of Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to mass shootings after years of blockades on gun issues, one of the most fascinating coming from Georgia MP Lucy McBath.
He recalled how his son, Jordan, was shot dead at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. He said he dreams of who he would have become. He said racial bias led to his death and that of 10 black Americans in Buffalo last month and that he is “reproducing with casual cruelty and a despicable frequency” in the United States.
“We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue,” McBath said. “And we have solutions that most Americans believe in. These are common sense commitments that will keep American children alive.”
Any legislative response to the UValde and Buffalo executions will have to go through the equally divided Senate, where the support of at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to the final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus.
Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks on gun purchases and encouraging red-flag laws that allow relatives, school officials and others to go to court and obtain orders that require police confiscate the weapons of people considered to be threats to themselves or others.
The broader bipartisan group of nearly 10 senators spoke again on Wednesday: “A very productive call,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Said in an interview.
“There’s a tenor and a tone, as well as a real substantial discussion that looks different,” he said.
Blumenthal has been working with a Republican member of the group, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, on a proposal to send resources to states for red-flag laws. He said he was “excited and encouraged” by the group’s response.
“It’s really time for our Republican colleagues to accuse or keep quiet,” Blumenthal said. “We’ve been on this road before.”
President Joe Biden was asked Wednesday whether he was confident Congress would take action on gun legislation.
“I served in Congress for 36 years. I’m never sure, totally,” Biden said. “It simply came to our notice then. I did not take part in the negotiations, as they are happening now. “
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.