Guns on agenda as Congress returns from August recess

WASHINGTON — Congress returns this week with a slate full of “must-do” items that include passing spending bills to keep the government funded and addressing gun legislation, which took on increased importance following three mass shootings last month.

President Donald Trump said administration officials have been working with lawmakers over the break to improve background check legislation, although no specific proposal has been unveiled ahead of the return of the House and Senate.

Walmart, the scene of a massacre in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people died, wrote House and Senate leaders notifying them that the retailer will stop selling some guns and ammunition.

Kroger and Walgreens have joined Walmart in asking people not to openly carry firearms in their stores.

But while the private sector moves on gun measures, politicians continue to bicker over how best to tackle the growing number of deaths from mass shootings in the country.

After recent shootings, Trump spoke of the need for strengthening background checks and restricting access to weapons as well as devices that accelerate the rate of fire, including bump stocks.

The president had instructed the Justice Department to issue new regulations on bump stocks following the Las Vegas shooting on Oct. 1, 2017. The federal government banned them effective March 26.

But Trump has remained noncommittal about specifics involving gun legislation after a month of carnage, with two mass shootings in Texas and one in Ohio.

“We are in the process of dealing with Democrats and Republicans, and there’s a big package of things that’s going to be put before them by a lot of different people,” Trump said last week.

“Over the last five, six, or seven years, no matter how strong you need the background checks, it wouldn’t have stopped any of it,” Trump told reporters.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told a conservative radio outlet last week that he would not bring gun legislation to the Senate floor without the backing of the president.

Instead, a spokesman for McConnell said the Senate will work on appropriations bills and continue with confirmation of Trump administration officials and judicial candidates.

In the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-Calif., said he will take up legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, which were used in recent mass shootings.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., was one of four House members who filed the Keep Americans Safe Act, which would ban the high-capacity ammunition magazines, like those used in Las Vegas mass shooting, which left 58 dead and hundreds wounded.

“Banning high-capacity magazines will save lives,” Titus said.

Despite the recent spate of shootings and pressure from the public on lawmakers and elected officials to act, a ban on weapon magazines or semi-automatic rifles appears unlikely.

In addition to McConnell’s comments to conservative radio hosts, the majority leader has refused to take up bills passed by the House, mostly along partisan lines, to strengthen background checks.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.