“Every day, the epidemic of gun violence inflicts a devastating toll in communities in every corner of our country, forcing far too many to endure heartbreak and tragedy,” Pelosi said in a statement on Saturday. “The Republican Senate must end its obstruction and finally pass the commonsense, bipartisan, House-passed gun violence prevention legislation that the country is demanding.
On Friday, a tweet from the California Democrat’s “Team Pelosi” Twitter account named McConnell, saying, “Gun violence requires immediate action, but Mitch McConnell is refusing to help the people.” CNN has reached out to McConnell’s office for comment.
The House Judiciary Committee had scheduled to return from August recess a week early to mark up gun legislation, but postponed the meeting because several lawmakers on the committee represent areas of Florida where Hurricane Dorian was projected to hit.
Congress has long struggled to pass gun control legislation, even in the aftermath of a tragedy.
2020 Democrats call for action
“Let’s vote on gun safety legislation NOW. Every day you wait, more tragedies happen,” the Massachusetts senator tweeted Saturday. “Do something, Senator McConnell. America is done waiting for you.”
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she wanted lawmakers “to go back to work in the Senate weeks ago to pass the bills to start fixing this.”
“They didn’t. No more of the same playbook: (1) promises made; (2) NRA meeting; (3) promises broken. We need to act,” Klobuchar tweeted Saturday.
“It’s unacceptable that untold numbers of communities elsewhere were victimized by gun violence today too,” he said in a statement on Saturday. “We are not powerless to act. We can stop this carnage by passing commonsense laws, like gun licensing, that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who should not have them.”
Castro criticized Republicans, including Florida Sen. Rick Scott, for their “happy talk” promising to look into gun violence legislation but never taking action on the issue. He called Trump’s past statements expressing interest in universal background checks “the biggest lies the President has told.”
“The biggest lies that the President has told include that he would do something about universal background checks. He said that twice after Parkland and then after El Paso and Dayton,” Castro said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “He’s gone back on his word. Those are the biggest things that count for this president.”
O’Rourke told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that “thoughts and prayers” have “done nothing” to curb rampant shootings in the country.
“A hundred killed daily in the United States of America. We’re averaging about 300 mass shootings a year. No other country comes close. So yes, this is f***ed up,” O’Rourke said. He used the same expletive to describe the mass shooting Saturday at an event in Virginia.
Trump administration responds
Speaking to reporters after returning to the White House Sunday from Camp David, Trump called the shooting “a very, very sad situation,” but said the tragedy didn’t immediately impact what was happening in Congress.
“This really hasn’t changed anything, we’re doing a package,” he said. “We’re looking at a lot of different things, a lot of different bills, ideas, concepts. For the most part, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it. So it’s a big problem. It’s a mental problem. It’s a big problem.”
CNN’s Paul Leblanc, Kate Sullivan and Caroline Kelly contributed to this story.