A House committee has advanced a series of gun control measures, including a bill that would ban magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds and a measure to encourage states to confiscate guns from some individuals. But the party leadership in both the House and Senate remain focused on a less ambitious and more politically safe bill that would expand background checks for gun purchases.
The background check measure is widely supported in public polls but it stops far short of what many progressive Democrats want to do legislatively to curb gun violence in the wake of a series of mass shootings. The vast majority of the House Democratic Caucus, for example, have sponsored a measure to ban outright all semi-automatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition devices.
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“I really believe that the appetite is significant,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who is co-chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus.
Jayapal noted that 210 Democrats have co-sponsored the bill, just shy of a House majority. One Republican, New York Rep. Pete King, has also signed on.
“I believe we have strong and robust support for the ban and we should bring it to the floor and we should pass it,” Jayapal said.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, isn’t anywhere on the House calendar, however. “We need to make a determination as to where entirety of the Democratic caucus is on the issue,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Wednesday.
Democratic leaders have not indicated when, or if, they will take up a trio of gun control measures the House Judiciary Committee advanced Tuesday night. Instead, they are focused on H.R. 8, a bill that would expand background checks to include all gun purchases and would ban gun sales by unlicensed dealers.
“My view is that we need to get the background check bill passed,” California Democrat Mike Thompson, chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, told reporters in the Capitol when asked about the proposals to ban semi-automatic weapons and high capacity ammunition.
The House passed the background check measure in February and Democrats have touted it as bipartisan because it earned eight Republican votes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have recently held press conferences and taken other steps to publicly pressure the GOP-led Senate and President Trump to approve the legislation.
[Related: Trump will determine fate of gun control legislation]
“This isn’t radical,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Monday at a press conference. “It’s just an expansion of what has been successful already.”
Legislation to expand background checks are politically safe ground for Democrats wary of forcing their vulnerable swing district lawmakers to vote on measures that would anger their constituents.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found 89% of adults support expanding background checks to cover private gun sales, including gun show transactions. The data suggest legislation to expand background checks won’t hurt swing district Democratic moderates.
“Both measures are supported by at least 8 in 10 Republicans, white evangelical Christians, members of gun-owning households and other traditionally conservative groups,” the Washington Post noted.
Banning semi-automatic weapons and ammunition, however, is a less popular idea. A Fox News poll released in mid-August found 67% of respondents favored banning “assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons.” Among the group, only 46% identified as Republicans.
The same Fox poll found 81% of respondents backed “red flag” laws, known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which authorize law enforcement officers to seize guns from some individuals. The House Judiciary Committee included red flag legislation among the trio of measures approved on Tuesday.
The bill incentivizes states to employ red flag measures and it authorizes federal courts to issue Extreme Risk Protection Orders. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called the bill “a sensible means by which an individual who exhibits dangerous behavior can be prevented from possessing or purchasing firearms.”
The Judiciary Committee also advanced a measure banning high-capacity magazines and a third bill banning the sale or transfer of guns to anyone convicted of a hate crime.
Pelosi on Wednesday praised the New York Democrat for advancing the three bills, but she didn’t announce a floor vote.
“We salute the leadership of Chairman Nadler and the Judiciary Committee in advancing additional, life-saving legislation to address the gun violence crisis,” Pelosi said.
“These critical, commonsense bills would save lives: taking steps to limit the lethality of the deadliest firearms, helping states and local law enforcement keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others and blocking people convicted of hate crimes from purchasing firearms.”
