Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday “encouraged” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to work with Senate Democrats on gun control legislation in a reaction to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas this week.
McConnell specifically requested Cornyn to work with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to “find a consensus on some legislation to respond to the shooting in Texas,” CNN reported.
“I’ve encouraged him to talk to Sen. Sinema, Sen. Murphy and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem,” McConnell said of Tuesday’s mass school shooting. “I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told his Democrat colleagues on Wednesday he will push off a gun control vote until he believes there are enough votes to overcome the Senate’s 60 vote threshold.
“One nation under guns. That is simply heartbreaking — heartbreaking to think that this is the legacy that older generations are leaving behind for young Americans, one nation under guns,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
Schumer also asked Murphy and Sinema to work with Republicans on limiting the Second Amendment.
“I’m going to start having conversations again with colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” Sinema told reporters Wednesday. “If there is a chance for us to do something to help make it safer for kids in this country, we owe it to the country to do it for real, not just talking points.”
Murphy told CNN Wednesday he believes universal background checks and banning rifles should occur in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.
“Voters get to decide this. Ask your candidates this fall: ‘Are you supportive of universal background checks? Do you think that 18-year-olds should have access to military-style assault weapons?’ And if they say yes, if they support the current law and don’t support reform, then don’t send them back to Congress,” he said.
McConnell’s demand comes after 19 children and two adults were killed in a mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school on Tuesday. The shooter was 18 years of age and old enough to legally purchase a firearm but broke several gun laws in the act.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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