Clinton talks gun legislation immediately following massacre

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, amid the fallout of the massacre in Las Vegas, turned the political spotlight on a gun bill that’s currently making its way through the House.

“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,” she tweeted Monday morning.

She wrote later, “Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”

The “Hearing Protection Act,” which would make it easier to purchase silencers, is part of a larger bipartisan measure that would ease restrictions on transporting guns across state lines and narrows the restricted category of armor-piercing ammunition. Supporters point out that silencers don’t make guns silent, but it decreases their decibel level and muffles the noise.

The House Committee on Natural Resources passed the larger package, known as the SHARE Act, last month. It aims to “expand opportunities for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting” and “increases safety and hearing protection for sportsmen and women,” according to a statement from the committee at the time of passage. The bill would now go to a floor vote, and would need to pass the Senate, but no such vote has been scheduled in the House.

A congressional hearing on the bill had been scheduled in June, but was canceled in the wake of the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice that seriously wounded House Republican Whip Steve Scalise and several others.

The House Committee on Natural Resources eventually held a hearing September 12 and passed the bill a day later. Multiple GOP leadership aides told CNN there is no House floor vote scheduled yet on the measure.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is on natural resources committee, told CNN on Monday that the only thing between the bill and its passage is “timing.”

“The current system for background checks for silencers is very important,” Gallego said. “The only thing that’s stopping Republicans now is timing.”

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