Thompson condemns congressional inaction on gun control

It’s been five years since the St. Helena congressman introduced his universal background checks bill. It has broad support but has never been allowed a vote or hearing.|

As the nation recoiled in horror Thursday at the latest school shooting, Rep. Mike Thompson’s move to expand background checks for gun buyers received its latest rebuff within the House of Representatives.

Taking the House floor momentarily on what’s known as a “point of parliamentary inquiry,” Thompson said: “Mr. Speaker, can you tell us when the House may muster the courage to take up the issue of gun violence,” gaining applause from some nearby Democrats.

The acting chairman - not House Speaker Paul Ryan - had a terse response: “The gentleman is not stating a proper parliamentary inquiry,” he said, quickly moving on to other business.

It was more of the same, and it was all he could do, Thompson, the St. Helena Democrat who heads the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said hours later in an interview.

If his background checks bill - introduced two months after the shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook school that killed 26 people in December, 2012 - came to a floor vote it would “pass overwhelmingly,” Thompson said.

But the majority party rules the House, and the bill remains stalled without a hearing, much less a vote.

“It’s going to take an outcry of people from their districts,” Thompson said, referring to House Republican leaders. “We need people to speak up. We need responsible gun owners to speak up.”

Authorities said Thursday that Nikolas Cruz, 19, admitted his role in the shooting that killed 17 people at a high school in South Florida.

His lawyer, public defender Gordon Weekes, described Cruz, who opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, as a “deeply disturbed, emotionally broken” young man who has struggled with significant mental illness and trauma his entire life.

“The guy never should have had a gun,” Thompson said. “He got a gun and he hurt people and he killed people.”

“It’s horrible to think of the damage that one person has done. It’s going to forever change that community.”

Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he had already told Florida’s House speaker that “if someone is mentally ill, he should not have access to a gun.” Broward County School Superintendent Rob Runcie said “now is the time to have a real conversation about gun control legislation.”

Thompson, a Vietnam war combat veteran and gun owner, has consistently said the Second Amendment prohibits taking guns away from law-abiding citizens, but uniform background checks are a common sense response to the ongoing gun tragedies.

Since the Sandy Hook incident, there have been 1,600 mass shootings in the United States and at least 239 school shootings, where 438 people were shot and 138 died, The New York Times reported.

Thompson also faulted President Donald Trump, who said in a subdued, seven-minute speech at the White House that the nation must “secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” He made no mention of guns.

Trump is the “same president” who signed a bill rescinding an Obama-era rule that required the Social Security Administration to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System disability applicants unable to manage their finances because of due to a mental health condition, Thompson noted.

More recently, Thompson said, Trump’s new proposed budget would cut funding for the background check system, which gun dealers use to verify if someone is banned from buying a gun before selling it to them. His spending plan slashes funding by 16 percent, to $61 million.

“He’s in the pocket of the gun lobby,” Thompson said of the president.

But Thompson said he will continue to press for federal action as 30 people are killed in the nation by someone using a gun every day.

“I’m certainly frustrated,” he said, “but make no mistake about it. I’m determined to do something about it.”

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