Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are pressuring committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte to bring legislation enacting more stringent gun laws before the committee.
“With each such high-profile mass shooting that shocks our nation, our citizens cannot understand why Congress has not done more to address these issues,” the committee Democrats wrote to in a letter to Goodlatte on Wednesday. “After the shooting in Parkland, many students at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School, undergoing unimaginable grief, are bravely calling on elected officials to do more, demanding that we ‘never again’ experience such a tragedy in this country.”
The Democrats told Goodlatte, R-Va., they fear the Judiciary Committee’s response to the “urgent threat of gun violence will be inadequate once again.”
Referencing mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., Las Vegas, and Sutherland Springs, Texas, among others, the lawmakers said the committee hasn’t held any hearings to examine ways to prevent future gun deaths in the wake of these incidents.
The 17 Democratic lawmakers stressed the need for legislation to extend background checks to all gun sales and raise the minimum purchasing age for assault rifles to 21. But they spoke out against adopting legislation that would allow for national concealed carry reciprocity.
Their letter comes amid heightened calls for Congress to pass stricter gun laws following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Seventeen people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in the incident.
Goodlatte and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked FBI Director Christopher Wray for a briefing after it was revealed the bureau failed to properly act on a tip it received about Nikolas Cruz, the gunman in last week’s shooting.
But the Judiciary Committee Democrats said the briefing that doesn’t take the place of legislative action.
“So far, your sense of urgency about this issue has focused solely on the FBI, but your request to Director Wray is no substitute for enacting meaning legislation, which we know is necessary to make our citizens safer from gun violence,” they wrote.
