The House won’t vote on proposed Democratic gun curbs, Speaker Paul Ryan suggested Tuesday as the rekindled election-year clash over firearms showed no sign of resolution. Democrats discussed their demands for votes with Ryan and said they told him: “We’re not going away.”
In an interview early Tuesday, Ryan, R-Wis., said Democrats’ plans to broaden required background checks for gun buyers and to bar firearm sales to terror suspects were unconstitutional. And though he did not directly say he would block votes on the Democrats’ bills, he said Republicans had no intention of rewarding Democrats for their lengthy House floor sit-in two weeks ago to demand gun-control votes.
“Win elections and get the majority, then you can set the agenda,” Ryan said on the “Midday with Charlie Sykes” show on WTMU radio in Milwaukee.
Tuesday evening, he met privately with two leaders of that sit-in, Reps. John Lewis of Georgia and John Larson of Connecticut, in a session the two Democrats described as respectful.
“We wanted action, and we wanted action now,” Lewis, the civil rights hero, told reporters of their message to Ryan. “And I think the speaker heard us, he was listening. But he couldn’t give us any assurance” that he’d allow votes on the Democratic proposals.
“We’re not going away,” Larson said. “And we’re determined in that effort.”
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the two parties “have different views on how to achieve a shared goal of preventing gun deaths,” especially over how to protect gun owners’ rights. She said the next steps on anti-terror legislation “will be discussed and determined by the majority in the coming days.”
That seemed less assured than earlier comments from Ryan and other Republicans that the House would vote on GOP legislation this week. Late Tuesday, Republicans were working to line up enough GOP support for their own measure, with some in the party having questions about the bill’s grants, its procedural protections for gun owners and other concerns.