House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on the GOP to take up legislation that would prevent terror watch list suspects from purchasing guns, even as Senate Democrats were preparing to force votes on that issue in the upper chamber.
The morning after a shooting in California that left 14 people dead, Pelosi referred to a New York Daily News front page declaring “God Isn’t Fixing This,” and said Congress should do more than hold a moment of silence in the wake of what has become a pattern of mass shootings.
“What gives us the right to hold moments of silence when we do nothing to act upon the cause of the grief?” Pelosi said.
Democrats are calling for a bill to ban people on the terrorism watchlist from buying guns, which has a Republican cosponsor but faces heavy opposition from the Right and gun lobby groups.
Republicans have resisted the terror watchlist bill, in part because the National Rifle Association and other gun groups say the list is error-ridden and secret.
House Republican leaders have made no commitment to take up the terror watchlist legislation, even though it is sponsored by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. Instead, the GOP plans to focus on advancing legislation to improve mental health programs.
Last week’s shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., was carried out by a man with a history of troubling behavior.
While no motive has been declared in the San Bernardino shootings on Wednesday, terrorism has not been ruled out. The suspects purchased assault-style weapons legally, but were not on a terror watchlist. The mass shooting in Paris last month was also carried out with assault-style weapons.
“Perhaps no vulnerability is more glaring than allowing suspects of the FBI terror watchlist to buy a gun,” Pelosi told reporters. “We must close this outrageous loophole.”
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are stepping up their efforts to advance gun control legislation in the wake of the latest shootings.
The Senate is debating a bill that repeals much of Obamacare. Democrats say they will try to amend the bill with legislation to “close loopholes in the gun background checks system, to expand background checks to cover more gun sales, and improve gun safety in other ways,” according to the office of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the number-three Senate Democrat.
