House committee pushes forward on gun control bills as Senate and Trump waver

The House Judiciary Committee will vote on whether to send several gun control bills to the House floor for a full vote on Tuesday, even as the Senate and President Trump vacillate on support for less restrictive proposals.

The committee meeting, known as a markup, comes after three deadly mass shootings in the month of August that killed 38 people in total. House Democrats urged the Senate to hold an emergency session to vote on a bill passed by the House in February which would implement universal background checks, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted the call.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also holding a forum with Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chairman Mike Thompson on Tuesday to urge McConnell to bring gun control legislation to the Senate floor.

McConnell recently said that he is waiting on Mr. Trump to signal which gun control measure, if any, he supports, before acting in the Senate. He said that he would bring a background checks bill to the Senate floor only if it had Mr. Trump’s support and he was certain “we will pass it and it’ll become law.”

Mr. Trump has sent mixed signals about whether he would support background checks. After two shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in early August, the president tweeted that “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks,” although he suggested that such legislation could be paired with a bill on immigration.

However, Mr. Trump insisted later that month that the U.S. already has “very, very strong background checks” for gun purchases, noting many of his supporters “are strong believers in the Second Amendment.” Mr. Trump met with National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre several times.

Mr. Trump told reporters at the beginning of September that he was speaking with several lawmakers about potential gun restrictions, but did not offer any concrete positions.

“Well, I’ve been speaking to them,” the president said. “I’ve been speaking to a lot of senators. We’ve been speaking to a lot of House members, a lot of Republicans, a lot of Democrats. And people want to do something. So we’re going to see.”

Here are the gun control bills the House Judiciary Committee is considering on Tuesday:

• H.R. 1236, the “Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019″: This bill would provide grants to help state, tribal and local efforts to remove firearms from individuals determined to be a danger to themselves or others. Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws are more commonly known as “red flag” laws.
• H.R. 1186, the “Keep Americans Safe Act”: This bill would regulate large capacity ammunition feeding devices, such as a magazine or belt, making it illegal to import, sell, manufacture or possess such devices.
• H.R. 2708, the “Disarm Hate Act”: This bill would prevent a person convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from obtaining a firearm.