The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday will consider eight weapons control legislation, which will be packaged as the “Protection of Our Children” Act, and will move to the voting hall next week, according to a committee member. The move comes when President Biden told reporters Tuesday that he would meet with Congress on weapons.
“I will meet with the Congress on Weapons, I promise you,” the president told reporters on Tuesday.
The Commission will first discuss and amend the proposed legislation at an additional session before the full vote. But any measure passed by the House of Representatives, led by Democrats, will also have to go through the Senate, requiring 60 votes to advance and adopt. An evenly divided Senate is unlikely to accept the radical changes that most Democrats in the House want.
Legislation under consideration by the House of Democrats will do the following
- Increase the age for buying a semi-automatic central fire rifle from 18 to 21 years
- Illegally import, sell, produce, transfer or own a high capacity magazine, with some exceptions
- Creating requirements governing the storage of firearms in residential premises
- Upgrade the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Regulatory Ban on Impact Guns, Attachments to Weapons that Facilitate Rapid Fire. Existing stocks will have to be registered, and the sale and possession of uneven stocks by civilians will be prohibited.
- Current federal regulations on firearms will apply to so-called “ghost weapons”.
On the Senate side, Republican Sen. John Cornin, who represents Texas, and Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy are meeting at ZOOM on Tuesday to see if they can find common ground on gun security reforms. A Cornin aide said they were meeting to “see if we can agree on a basic framework” to move forward with any weapons legislation. More meetings are planned later this week, according to a congressional aide.
Cornin represents the state where an 18-year-old shooter shot 19 children and two teachers, leaving families and the community in mourning. Mr Biden said on Sunday that he had not yet negotiated with Republican senators on the issue.
On Sunday, CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Murphy, whose state was massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School a decade ago, said he knew Republicans would not support everything he did. But “red flag laws are on the table,” as are expanding past checks and things like safe weapons storage.
“I think we can do something, but we don’t have much time,” Murphy said.
In a meeting with the Prime Minister of New Zealand on Tuesday, the President noted that the United States is experiencing a large number of mass shootings.
“Much of this is preventable, and the devastation is incredible,” he said.
Mr Biden visited Uwalde, Texas and Rob Elementary School on Sunday, meeting with families who had lost loved ones. The pain there was “palpable,” he said.
Exactly when the president will meet with members of Congress remains unclear.
“When the time comes, he will get involved,” White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
– CBS News Congress correspondent Scott McFarlane contributed to this report
School shooting in Uwald, Texas
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Rebecca Kaplan covers Congress for CBS News.
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