Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) rallied at a Walmart parking lot Tuesday to urge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring a House-passed background check bill up for a vote.
“Today, Peter King, a Republican, myself, a Democrat, are here to say enough is enough. We are calling on Leader McConnell to bring the bill that passed the House … to the floor of the Senate ASAP,” Schumer said during the press conference.
{mosads}”If that bill comes to the floor of the Senate I believe it will pass,” Schumer added.
The House passed a universal background check bill earlier this year. It also passed legislation that would extend the amount of time a gun seller has to wait for a background check to clear before they can sell a firearm from three days to 10 days.
But the bills stalled in the Senate, where background check legislation has an uphill path to getting the 60 votes needed to pass after a failed vote in 2013. GOP Sens. Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Susan Collins (Maine) are the only remaining Republicans in the Senate who voted for the 2013 background check bill.
McConnell didn’t specifically address background check legislation in a statement released on Monday night but warned against “partisan theatrics.”
“Only serious, bipartisan, bicameral efforts will enable us to continue this important work and produce further legislation that can pass the Senate, pass the House, and earn the president’s signature,” he said.
Democrats and some Republicans are clamoring for McConnell to pass gun legislation in the wake of last weekend’s mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
Asked what was holding up the House bill, Schumer said “Leader McConnell is not putting it on the floor. That’s what’s holding it back. That’s it.”
President Trump indicated in a tweet on Monday morning that he supports stronger background checks, but he didn’t mention a proposal in his remarks from the White House instead focusing on rejecting white supremacy and combating mental health issues.
King urged Trump to publicly push McConnell to bring the House bill to the floor for a vote. The Senate is currently out of session and not expected to return until early September.
“Let it come to a vote on the Senate floor and let the chips fall where they may,” King said.
Schumer added that it would be “great” if Trump “would tell Leader McConnell to put it on the floor.”