Pelosi: House to Hold Hearings on 'Assault Weapons' Ban
Speaker confirms Democrats to push for anti-Second Amendment ban
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Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has announced that the House will hold hearings next week to vote on an "assault weapons" ban.
Pelosi said Democrats will hold a hearing on anti-Second Amendment bans that were excluded from a package of gun-control policies the House plans to vote on next week.
"We will soon hold a hearing on an assault weapons ban bill: a step the Congress took decades ago that was proven to save lives and one that the American people support today," Pelosi said in a letter to fellow Democrats.
Pelosi also announced in the letter that the House will vote on a red flag law bill next week.
The vote will be in addition to the broader package of radical gun-control measures designed to strip law-abiding Americans of their constitutional rights.
The House Judiciary Committee prepared the package for a vote at a meeting on Thursday.
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It's not clear the House will get past the committee stage on any legislation to ban assault weapons, however.
So far, it's not clear if there are enough House Democrats who support such a bill.
Most Democrats, including Joe Biden, favor an "assault weapons" ban.
And Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) argued for one at the House Judiciary Committee event Thursday.
"Assault weapons are made to kill... when they're hit with an assault weapon they cannot be identified," he falsely claimed.
"They are obliterated," Cohen alleged of children shot with so-called "assault weapons."
Pressumably referencing AR-15 rifles, Cohen continued by pushing the false claim that the guns are "weapons of war."
"They are weapons of war and weapons of death and weapons of destruction that we should not permit out here," he said.
However, no military branch uses AR-15s in war or otherwise.
Cohen said he would not introduce an amendment to the omnibus package to ban "assault weapons" out of respect to its authors.
But Pelosi in her Thursday letter said Democrats are intent on keeping the pressure up for major gun reforms, including by keeping America's left-wing corporate media focused on gun violence.
"As we go down this path, it is our responsibility to keep gun violence front and center in the media so that, strengthened by public opinion, we can get life-saving legislation over the finish line," the speaker wrote.
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It's highly unlikely, however, that any House legislation will become law, even in the wake of mass shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Uvalde, Texas; and Buffalo, New York.
Republicans will likely defend Americans' Second Amendment rights by using the filibuster to block most Democrat-backed gun control proposals in the Senate.
Several Senate lawmakers, however, are working on a compromise proposal.
Lawmakers met both Tuesday and Wednesday in different groups, and their staffs continue to discuss proposals.
It's not yet clear when the next meeting of senators will be, however.
