Democrats returning to Capitol Hill following a summer of several deadly mass shootings warned the GOP they won’t abandon efforts to pass a bill expanding background checks for gun purchases.
“We are not taking no for an answer,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Monday at a press conference in the Capitol.
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“If this bill is not passed, Mitch McConnell, President Trump and Republicans in the Senate will have hell to pay,” said the California Democrat.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has pledged to make legislation addressing gun violence a top priority this month and has tasked three committees to come up with bipartisan proposals.
[Related: Democrats ramp up pressure on GOP to take up their gun control bill]
McConnell made no mention of gun control legislation when he opened the Senate on Monday afternoon.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a leader on gun control in the Senate, said he has been negotiating with the White House on bipartisan legislation but is pessimistic about finding a deal.
“I’m still negotiating in good faith to find a bipartisan proposal that will expand checks to cover more commercial sales and save lives, and I continue to take the president at his word that he wants the same thing,” Murphy said Monday.
“But as each day goes by, it seems more likely that we’re going to find ourselves back in a familiar place where 90 percent of the Americans who want more background checks are going to be disappointed once again.”
Across the Capitol, his Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ramped up pressure on McConnell and Trump, who said he is in favor new background check legislation but has not endorsed any specific legislation.
“Two people in Washington can make sure the background check bill passes,” the New York Democrat said. “Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. It is up to them. Totally up to them. And it is on their shoulders. They cannot escape that responsibility.”
Pelosi and Schumer wrote to Trump Sunday urging him to endorse a House-passed bill expanding background checks and banning private sales and most gun transfers by non-licensed dealers.
Pro-gun groups, including the NRA, oppose expanding the background checks beyond those currently required under the law.
The House-passed background check bill passed in February with the help of only a few GOP lawmakers.
The GOP-led Senate is more likely to consider a bipartisan background check bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, which would expand background checks but carve out more exceptions for family members.
Schumer said polls show the vast majority of Americans support expanding background checks, a number that has increased following a succession of mass shootings. Three such events killed 51 people in recent weeks.
“Voters throughout America want this bill done,” Schumer said. “That is what builds the pressure.”
