WASHINGTON – The House won't vote on proposed Democratic gun curbs, Speaker Paul Ryan suggested Tuesday as the rekindled election-year clash over firearms showed no sign of resolution.
Ryan, R-Wis., said Democrats' plans to broaden required background checks for gun buyers and to bar firearm sales to terror suspects were unconstitutional.
And though he did not directly say he would block votes on the Democrats' bills, he said Republicans had no intention of rewarding Democrats for their lengthy House floor sit-in two weeks ago to demand gun-control votes.
"Win elections and get the majority, then you can set the agenda," Ryan said on the "Midday with Charlie Sykes" show WTMU radio in Milwaukee.
The House plans to debate GOP legislation this week that would let federal authorities block gun sales to suspected terrorists, but only if they could prove in court within three days that the suspect was planning to engage in terrorism. Democrats call that an impossible legal standard that makes that proposal ineffective.
The Republican measure would also create a new office within the Department of Homeland Security to focus on battling what it calls "radical Islamist terrorism" in the U.S.
Ryan planned to meet Tuesday evening with two leaders of the sit-in, Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and John Larson, D-Conn., to discuss the House's plans.
Ryan says the Democratic bills would violate the Constitution's rights for people to bear arms and to have legal processes to protect themselves.
The gun issue has flared anew since the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando in which 49 victims died.
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