.@SpeakerRyan: “We shouldn’t be banning guns for law-abiding citizens, we should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don’t get those guns.” pic.twitter.com/9P1gcyiQw9
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 27, 2018
Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead and prompted a huge uptick in anti-gun violence rallies across the country, polling data has shown that more and more Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws. However, even with support for gun control at similar levels as it was in 1994 when the assault weapons ban (that expired in 2004) was passed by Congress, the GOP is signaling that it’s refusing to talk about new laws.
During his weekly news conference, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said he wasn’t in favor of legislating additional restrictions to gun purchases. “We shouldn’t be banning guns for law-abiding citizens, we should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don’t get those guns,” Ryan said.
Instead, despite similar legislation going nowhere after an even deadlier shooting that revealed the holes in the system, Ryan has pointed toward fixing the databases that process gun sales. “We do know there are gaps in the background check system that need to be plugged,” he also said. “We passed a bill to do that and we think that should get done clearly.”
Unmentioned by Ryan is that that bill was attached to a larger piece of legislation that includes, among other things, a provision allowing people with concealed carry permits to travel to different states with their firearms — making it unlikely to get the necessary 60 votes to succeed in the Senate.