House Judiciary Committee to End Recess Early to Take Up Gun Control Bills

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced Friday that his committee will end its summer recess five days early to hold hearings on three bills aimed at preventing gun violence.

Nadler offered the following statement in announcing the markup hearing:

“On September 4th, the Judiciary Committee will take additional steps to address gun violence by marking up the Keep Americans Safe Act which would ban high capacity ammunition magazines that are a particularly dangerous feature of the assault weapons often used in mass shootings. In Dayton, the shooter used a magazine capable of holding 100 rounds. We will also mark up the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, to prevent those deemed a risk to themselves or others from accessing firearms, as well as the Disarm Hate Act, which would prevent those convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from possessing firearms. We won’t stop there.  We will also hold a hearing on September 25th to consider ways to address the dangers posed by assault weapons. These should not be partisan issues, and it is my hope we can move forward on these matters with support on both sides of the aisle, including the President.”

It remains to be seen whether the bills will gain bipartisan support in the weeks prior to the hearing, but at the moment the bills’ cosponsors are nearly exclusively Democrats:

• H.R. 1236 - Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019 (includes provisions of H.R. 3076): This bill would provide grants to states to adopt laws providing for Extreme Risk Protection Orders to prevent those deemed a risk to themselves or others from accessing firearms, and establish procedures for obtaining ERPOs in federal court. H.R. 1236 has been cosponsored by 157 Democrats and two Republicans while H.R. 3076 has the support of 73 Democratic cosponsors.
• H.R. 1186 - Keep Americans Safe Act: This bill would high capacity ammunition magazines. It has the support of 121 Democratic cosponsors.
• H.R. 2708 - Disarm Hate Act: This bill would make people convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes ineligible for gun ownership. It has the support of 129 Democratic cosponsors.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: EFF Photos via Wikimedia / Creative Commons)