Consensus grows on targeting white supremacy amid muddled gun action
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump landed in El Paso on Wednesday, lawmakers were all over the map on how to respond to the rampage there that left 22 dead over the weekend, one of two mass shootings that set the country reeling, again grappling with howto curb gun violence and stem the resurgence of white supremacist terrorism.
Calls intensified for Congress to return to D.C. from its August recess and act on gun control legislation. At the same time, Texas leaders vowed to take steps tomore closely monitor hate groups and keep firearms out of the hands of “deranged killers.”
Trump said Wednesday that there is “great appetite” among lawmakers in D.C. to pass legislation expanding background checks to buy guns, but “no political appetite” for an assault weapons ban as some have called for — even as at least one poll, released on Wednesday,
suggests voters, including a majority of Republicans, would support one.
What will come of all of it remains to be seen, as there appears tobelittle agreementonhowbest to proceed— especiallyonguns— even given a growing consensus that something needs to be done to stop the spread of white supremacy that federal authorities believe motivatedthe accusedElPaso shooter, who has been linked to an anti-Hispanic manifesto posted online.
The House of Representatives passed background check legislation that Trump championed earlier this year, but itwould stillneed to clear the Senate — and it doesn’t appear likely Senate Majority Leader MitchMcConnell will bring lawmakers back to D.C. during their break, set to last until next month.
More than 200 House Democrats, including several from Texas, wrote McConnell on Wednesday, urging him to call the Senate back for a vote.
“In the last 216 days, there have been 251mass shootings in theUnited States. We cannot become numb or accept this as normal,” U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “The American people deserve action.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn told reporters in El Paso on Wednesday that McConnell “has tasked members of the Senate to come together to see what sort of legislative responses might be appropriate, and some of theworkwe’ve done in the past, I think, ishelpful, butitdoesn’t cover something quite like this.”
Cornyn, however, did not say lawmakers should return toD.C. immediately.
Threat to national security
Lawmakers, meanwhile, were honing inontheneedtofocusmore specificallyonwhite supremacist violence. TheFBI is investigatingboth the El Paso shooting and the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting from last month as acts of terrorism.
While some Democrats and residents of El Paso blame Trump’s fiery rhetoric for fostering the kind of anti-immigrant hatred that may have fueled Saturday’s attack, even Republicans agree something needs to change.
“How you identify these people before they commit their crimes is really the puzzle,” Cornyn said. “This is a puzzle thatwe need to try to solve if we’re going to protect innocent lives, as we must do.”
A handful of Texas Democrats, meanwhile, joined several other members of Congress Wednesday in calling on lawmakers to return from their August break to begin working on legislation to do just that.
“In thewake of the El Paso shootings, it is clear that terrorists motivated by a commonwhite supremacist ideology are committing deadly attacks against African-American, Jewish, Muslim, Hispanic and other non-white communities in the UnitedStatesandaroundtheworld, and that they pose a clear and present danger to our national security,” the members wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and McConnell.
The letter — led by U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Tom Malinowski ofNewJersey — says relevant House and Senate committees should immediately return to D.C. to begin work on a “substantive, meaningful package to combat white supremacist terrorism.” Other Texans who signed on include U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Al Green of Houston and Colin Allred of Dallas.
‘Reduce racism and hate’
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott called for state officials to develop awatch list of hate groups and their members.
Abbott saidhewilldirect the Texas Department of Public Safety to work with federal and local officials to identify potential terrorists, hate groups and racists who pose a threatwhile he arranges for a series of roundtable discussions with experts this month about how to make Texas safer.
“We need to look on broaderbasedissues as a state and as a people toreduce racismandhate inthis state, to tamp down the rhetoric, to promotemore unity. We need to also ensure that guns are not in the hands of deranged killers,” Abbott said, adding thatTexas needs toalso guarantee that “constitutional rights are not going to be violated.”
Abbott declared the state would spend $5 million to help the city of El Paso recover from the massacre.
The governor said the state should also consider banning websites such as 8chan, where the El Paso shooter allegedly shared a hate-filled manifesto claiming a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Abbott said hewould also consider soliciting the help of leaders from Google and Facebook to identify people who could pose a threat to others.
Abbott conducted a similar series of roundtable discussions following a high school shooting in Santa Fe that claimed 10 lives in 2018. He recommended lawmakers consider so-called “red flag” laws that would remove guns from people deemed dangerous, although the proposal gained no momentum in the Republican-led Legislature.
Abbott also recommended then that the state expand a small telemedicine project to screen students at risk of hurting themselves. Lawmakers opted to spend $5 million into growing the program, although recent reports obtained by the HoustonChronicleandSanAntonio Express-News found few of the more than 200 students screened followed through with plans for counseling ormedication in the last five years.