In January, with the horror of the Newtown massacre still fresh, House Democrats assembled a task force to begin discussing gun controls. With negotiations now about to culminate in the Senate, the task force is focused on a bipartisan effort to assure a vote on that potential legislation in the House, according to Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who is playing a key role behind the scenes.
McCarthy, who came to Congress in 1997 on a campaign to reduce gun violence after her husband was murdered and her son severely injured in the Long Island Rail Road massacre of 1993, serves as vice chair of the task force. Given the steep political climb for any new gun control measures (with expanded background checks perhaps being the most possible, though still far from certain), McCarthy is remaining tightlipped about who might be cooperating on the Republican side. “We’re not releasing any names,” she said, declining to comment even on the number of Republicans involved.
McCarthy did reveal in an interview that the task force is focused on persuading 27 Democrats in the House who typically would not vote for gun reforms. Among those, she said that there may be seven of them “who truly would be in [electoral] trouble” if they backed the bill. (The House currently has 232 Republicans, 200 Democrats, and three vacant seats.) It’s a struggle in which she has been facing an all-too-familiar response from some of her colleagues, she said: “‘Carolyn, I’d love to vote for you,’ they say, but they’re waiting to see what comes up [in the Senate].”
The Showdown Over Gun Votes in the House
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