Obstacles - and silence - on Capitol Hill even as clamor for new gun laws grows

By Mike DeBonis and Sean Sullivan February 24 at 12:32 PM

The push for Congress to enact new federal gun restrictions following the shooting deaths of 17 students and faculty inside a Florida high school this month faces formidable obstacles in Congress, where key Republicans have met calls for action with skepticism — or, more often, silence.

Pressed by survivors of the Feb. 14 massacre, President Trump has said he is willing to consider new laws improving federal background checks, raising the minimum firearm purchase age and banning certain gun accessories. But neither House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has publicly acknowledged the possibility of new legislation.

The hands-off approach from the top leaders reflects divisions within the GOP between lawmakers representing politically moderate, often suburban areas where there is wide support for new gun laws and those representing more rural, solidly Republican states and districts where any attempt to restrict firearms could be seen as a creeping attack on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

While the former group has been increasingly vocal over the past week, it is the latter who constitute the bulk of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate — and are likely to dictate what legislation, if any, is considered in response.

What remains to be seen is whether the growing drumbeat for reform — from with the GOP, from major corporations, from Trump and from the country overall — will change this long-standing dynamic.

“I haven’t heard a strong, loud outcry for gun control,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who in an interview Friday called for rigorous congressional oversight of the multiple institutional failures that preceded suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz’s rampage inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/obstacles--and-silence--on-capitol-hill-even-as-clamor-for-new-gun-laws-grows/2018/02/24/634f95b6-18cc-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html