Schumer & Pelosi respond to Texas & Ohio shootings: Congress must come pass a bill that wouldn’t have prevented them

“In February, the new Democratic House Majority promptly did its duty and passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which is supported by more than 90 percent of the American people and proven to save lives,” the joint statement from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., began. “However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has called himself the ‘grim reaper’ and refuses to act on this bipartisan legislation. It is incumbent upon the Senate to come back into session to pass this legislation immediately.”

The statement also chided president Trump for supposedly backing off of an earlier call for expanded background checks in the Monday morning speech. “When he can’t talk about guns when he talks about gun violence, it shows the President remains prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA.”

Schumer and Pelosi concluded that “the public must weigh in and demand passage of this legislation for the safety of our children.”
The legislation being referred to here is also known as H.R. 8. It was introduced just a few days into the new Congress and passed the next month. It extends federal background checks, requiring them for private firearms transactions that don’t cross state lines.

The problem here is that federally mandated background checks on private intrastate transactions wouldn’t have done a thing to prevent either one of the shootings in Texas or Ohio.