Hopes for quick gun deal fade as Senate negotiates
WASHINGTON — Senators buckled down Tuesday for days of additional negotiations on a response to recent high-profile mass shootings, retreating from earlier calls for quick action even as they expressed optimism that a long-elusive deal to address gun violence might eventually be possible.
The calls for patience came as a small bipartisan group of senators continues delicate talks on a legislative package that could include the first significant new federal gun restrictions in three decades, along with provisions dealing with school security and mental health. But they are fighting a tide of recent history demonstrating that Congress’s appetite for action tends to quickly fade as tragedies such as the killings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, last month fade from the headlines.
Last month, as the Senate prepared to leave Washington for a holiday recess days after the Uvalde shooter killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., upbraided Republican opponents of gun control and said he would move to a vote if the talks did not “bear fruit in a short period of time.”
Speaking Tuesday, Schumer did not issue any new ultimatum or outline a timeline for action, telling reporters only that the Senate would vote “in the near future.”
“This issue is too important not to do everything we can to find a bipartisan way forward,” he said. “We’re giving [Republicans] the opportunity, the chance, to say yes — we’re ready and eager to find common ground on something that can actually help address gun violence.”
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also gave an upbeat appraisal of the talks but said it was “way too soon” to predict how many Republicans might ultimately come along.