House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on the House to take up legislation to ban guns from terrorist suspects, and said Congress needs to take this step to fulfill its duty to protect all Americans from violence.
“We cannot remain silent,” the California Democrat said at a hearing of the Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “For us to honor the responsibilities that we have to protect and defend the American people, we must not only have moments of silence, we must have days of action.”
“To start, we can and must bring up the bipartisan Deny Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, to close the loopholes that allow suspects to purchase guns, which Republicans have blocked from debate three times,” she added.
That bill was introduced by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a point Pelosi stressed in the hearing. “This is a Republican bill, so this isn’t about partisanship,” she said.
King’s bill would allow the U.S. Attorney General to ban the sale of guns to anyone deemed to have been supporting terrorist activities, or if there is a “reasonable belief” that the person may use a gun for terrorist activities.
Republicans say the bill would give the government too much power to decide, without due process, who is allowed and who is not allowed to buy a gun. The GOP says that goes too far down the road of undermining the right of people to bear arms.
Democrats have filed a petition to dislodge the bill from committee and force a vote on the House floor. That effort is unlikely to succeed as it would need about 30 Republicans to sign the petition to force a vote.
But Pelosi said the time for action is now.
“Our inaction is unconscionable,” Pelosi said. “Our silence is just inconceivable. How can we remain silent? Enough is enough.”
