Emotions Run High on Capitol Hill After Dallas Shooting
"This has been a long week for our country," said House Speaker Paul Ryan.
— -- Members of Congress struggled today to come to grips with the overnight shooting in Dallas that killed five law enforcement officers, the latest attack in a string of violent episodes that have touched off a divisive gun control debate on Capitol Hill between Democrats and Republicans.
"This has been a long week for our country and a long month for America," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said on the House floor. "There will be a temptation to let our anger harden our divisions. Let's not let that happen."
Democrats have ripped on Ryan and Republican leaders for weeks for refusing to hold votes on the House floor on background check and gun control legislation that would deny individuals on the no-fly list from buying guns in the wake of the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre.
House Democrats, frustrated after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, waged an unprecedented 25-hour sit-in on the House floor two weeks ago. Ryan and other Republicans slammed the demonstration as a breach of House rules, and haven't ruled out disciplinary action against the minority.
But after a week where a vote on a GOP gun control measure supported by the National Rifle Association was derailed by conservative opposition, two officer-involved shootings occurred in quick succession in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the Capitol was locked down after a weapons scare, drained Republicans and Democrats appeared to be on the same page Friday.
"We are all horrified by this despicable act of violence," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a speech following Ryan on the House floor.
Ryan and Pelosi spoke today, but not specifically on gun legislation, according to a Pelosi aide.
Emotions ran high at a Congressional Black Caucus news conference initially organized after the shooting of Philando Castle in the Minneapolis area and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge.
Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, who represents the Dallas area and one of the officers killed Thursday, choked up when talking about his 10-year-old son.
"I just don't want anything to happen to him," he said. "I want police to be protected."
The Democrats continue to demand votes on Rep. Peter King's "no fly, no buy" proposal and background check legislation, along with measures and additional funding to address law enforcement training and practices nationwide.
“If you don’t put a bill on the floor to deal with it, let us, make in order our bill as an alternative,” Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in an interview about Democrats’ message to GOP leaders about votes.
Butterfield said Democrats are planning an event outside the Capitol next Thursday, ahead of the seven-week recess, and anticipates “thousands“ of people showing up.
“I don’t forecast that we do [another sit-in] again, but we don’t rule any other type of disobedience.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, didn’t announce any gun-control-related measures on the House schedule Friday afternoon.
But he and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, discussed plans to sit down to see “how we can bring this country, this House together on a way forward,” as Hoyer put it.
“Too many families are mourning losses this week,” McCarthy said. “There is an ability in this House to help this nation unite and heal the wounds that are out there.”
The House will break for the party presidential conventions and the summer for seven weeks next Friday, leaving lawmakers with limited time to act.