McConnell: Senate could look at assault weapons ban and background checks

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, under severe pressure from Democrats and a growing number of Republicans, suggested Thursday that the Senate could look at a ban on assault weapons and that there’s Senate support for a move to expand background checks to nearly all gun sales.

Speaking on WHAS 840 in Louisville, the Kentucky Republican said President Donald Trump called him Thursday morning and is “anxious to get an outcome and so am I.”

He said the two talked about various proposals that will be “front and center” in Senate discussions, including so-called red flag warning legislation that would keep guns from people deemed a threat by their friends and family members, as well as expanding background checks.

“There’s a lot of support for that,” McConnell said, referring to legislation championed by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who are hoping to revive legislation that would extend background checks for nearly all gun sales. A similar effort died in the Senate in 2013.

“The urgency of this is not lost on any of us,” McConnell said.

But he noted the bar for legislation includes passing the House, garnering 60 votes in the Senate and a presidential signature.

He did not rule out looking at a ban on assault weapons, but noted there is a dispute over whether the 1994 ban that expired in 2004 had showed results.

“It’s certainly one of the front and center issues,” he said. “But what we can’t do is fail to pass something. What I want to see here is an outcome, not a bunch of partisan back and forths, shots across the bow.”

McConnell has been pilloried by Democrats and gun control advocacy groups for refusing to schedule a Senate vote for a House measure to expand background checks. Congress is in recess until Sept. 9.

McConnell said Thursday “the key to this is making a law, not a point.” He said he hoped to have discussions between members of the two political parties in the next few weeks before the Senate returns to Washington.

The House in February passed two gun control measures, including one to expand background checks by requiring them for nearly all private sales, including gun shows and online transactions.

McConnell dismissed the idea of calling the Senate back immediately to pass the House legislation, saying “we’d just have people scoring political points and nothing would happen. There has to be a bipartisan discussion here of what we can agree on.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday wrote to Trump asking him to call the Senate back into session immediately to bring up the House-passed gun legislation.

The legislation’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Santa Rosa, who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and 213 House Democrats, including Kentucky’s sole Democrat, Rep. John Yarmuth, have sought to pressure McConnell, urging him in a letter to call the Senate back from recess and pass the House legislation.