Last month, as the Senate prepared to leave Washington for a holiday recess days after the Uvalde shooter killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) upbraided Republican opponents of gun control and said he would move to a vote if the talks did not “bear fruit in a short period of time.”
Speaking Tuesday, Schumer did not issue any new ultimatum or outline a timeline for action. “I’m encouraging my Democratic colleagues to keep talking to see if Republicans will work with us to come up with something that will make a meaningful change in the lives of the American people and to help stop gun violence,” he said, adding, “We have a moral obligation to do everything conceivable to break the cycle of violence.”
The top Republican negotiator, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), issued a similar plea for patience Monday, counseling his colleagues against setting “artificial deadlines.”
“I don’t believe the Senate will be voting this week, because good consensus legislation takes time,” he said. “My goal is to achieve a result. And the only way we can do that, the only way we can get a bill that will pass both chambers and earn the president’s signature, is by taking the time and reaching that consensus.”
Senators involved in the negotiations said this week that they have narrowed the list of potential elements to include in a package but that more work is needed. On Tuesday, the top Democratic negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), visited the White House to brief President Biden on the talks.
Murphy said afterward that Biden “knows that we’ve got to work out our compromise on our own” and that the president “is giving us the space necessary to get a deal done.” Murphy said he still aimed to strike a deal this week but said the Senate may need “some extra time to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”
More far-reaching measures that Biden has endorsed — such as an assault weapons ban, restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines and expansions of background checks to cover private gun sales — are not on the table, the senators said. But the use of federal grants encouraging states to adopt “red flag” laws meant to keep guns out of the hands of potential shooters is under discussion, as is a system to potentially screen gun buyers under 21 for juvenile offenses and mental health episodes.
A proposal that could create a federal minimum age of 21 for rifle buyers, matching the current law for handgun buyers, has not been formally ruled out but is unlikely to make it into a final package, several senators involved in the talks said.
But questions persist about how long the gun debate will remain front and center on Capitol Hill, with serious economic and foreign policy challenges also bearing down on Congress.
The Democratic-controlled House is set to take quicker action. It will begin debating two gun bills Wednesday — one that would create a federal red-flag law as well a package of legislation that includes a…
Read More: After Uvalde, hopes for quick gun legislation fade; Senate negotiators plead for patience
