House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday to convene a special Select Committee on Gun Violence.
In a letter, Pelosi, the Democrats’ leader in the House, demanded a mechanism in the wake of Sunday night’s Las Vegas mass-shooting that would allow for the drafting of ‘common sense legislation’ to combat gun crime.
President Donald Trump ‘has been clear that he’s a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,’ White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, responded to Sunday’s shooting massacre in Las Vegas by calling for a new congressional committee specifically to address gun violence
The White House insisted that Monday wasn’t the time for political reactions, but for healing
At least 58 people were killed when a gunman opened fire Sunday night on a country music festival, shooting from the 32nd floor of a casino hotel
Sanders batted away questions about the demand for new gun control measures, insisting that ‘this isn’t a time for us to go after individuals or organizations.’
‘I think that we can have those policy conversations, but today is not that day,’ she said.
‘There’s a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country.’
Sanders also warned Congress against drafting ‘laws that won’t stop these types of things from happening.’
She called Monday ‘a day of reflection, a day of mourning, a day of gratefulness for those that were saved.’
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms. Trump’s opposition to gun control would be expected to translate into a veto of legislation that upsets the National Rifle Association and other like-minded groups.
Still, Pelosi is looking for a platform to articulate liberals’ view that restricting the availability of some firearms is a reasonable way to limit gun-related deaths.
Democrats in Congress have consistently called for new gun control measures whenever a gunman sheds blood on a large scale
Above, the type of weapons found in the Las Vegas shooter’s hotel room. Unlike the AR-15 (bottom), the AK-47 (top) can be equipped either as a fully automatic machine gun, or as a semi-automatic rifle that fires one round at a time.
The Las Vegas shooting claimed at least 58 lives, making it the worst such mass-murder in modern American history.
‘As members of Congress, our words of comfort to the families of the victims of the Las Vegas massacre will ring hollow unless we take long overdue action to ensure that no other family is forced to endure such an unimaginable tragedy,’ Pelosi, a California Democrat, wrote to Ryan.
She also asked the GOP’s House majority to move on a bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Peter King of New York and Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson of California.
That legislation aims to expand America’s pre-sale background check system to cover all commercial firearms.
Monday wasn’t Pelosi’s first attempt to wish a congressional gun-violence committee into existence.
She made an identical plea exactly two years ago, on October 2, 2015.
Ryan’s predecessor in the speakership, John Boehner, never acted on that request, which followed a shooting on a community college campus in Oregon.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a longtime advocate of gun control laws, said Monday in a statement that ‘[i]ts time for Congress to get off its a** and do something.’
Sanders said hours later that she concurred with the sentiment in general, but not as it applies to firearms laws.
‘I actually agree with him that Congress should get up and do something,’ she said.
‘I’m not sure that it’s specific to that, but I think Congress has had several months of doing very little and we’d like to see some actual legislation come through.’
Trump’s legislative agenda, including an ambitious plan to repeal the Obamacare law, has stalled in Congress – largely due to infighting among Republicans.
