As this weekend got underway, the United States was again rocked by gun violence when a gunman began randomly targeting people in the area of Midland and Odessa, Texas. As grim details emerge like the death of some four victims and serious wounding of many more, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has issued a harsh statement demanding that the Senate GOP take action on the gun violence prevention legislation that the Democratic majority House passed months ago. That legislation includes major steps like the imposition of a universal background check requirement for gun purchases, which is supported by a majority of Americans of both major political parties — but the Senate, as led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still hasn’t taken action.
Besides insisting that the entire U.S. stood with the West Texas communities rocked by the shooting, Pelosi shared:
‘Enough is enough. Every day, the epidemic of gun violence inflicts a devastating toll in communities in every corner of our country, forcing far too many to endure heartbreak and tragedy. The Republican Senate must end its obstruction and finally pass the commonsense, bipartisan, House-passed gun violence prevention legislation that the country is demanding.’
Enough is enough. Every day, the gun violence epidemic inflicts a devastating toll in communities across America, this time
in West Texas. The @SenateGOP must end its obstruction & finally pass House-approved legislation to #EndGunViolence. https://t.co/RcoVI6Eebm— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) September 1, 2019
After a recent weekend in which mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton claimed the lives of more than 30 people overall, figures like McConnell and even President Donald Trump himself expressed an openness to imposing the universal background checks — but in the time since, Trump has insisted that we “already have” lots of checks, and McConnell has punted the issue down the road. He shared after that El Paso and Dayton carnage that he’d have Republican committee chairs come up with something following their August recess, refusing pressure to act more swiftly. Meanwhile, the casualties just keep accumulating.
On the plus side, it’s possible that Democrats take back control of the Senate come the 2020 elections. At present, they’d have to hang onto their one seat rated as a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report and claim the three rated similarly that are held by Republicans.
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