Menendez Calls on Republican Leader to Pass Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation, Stop Punting to POTUS

‘The Senate could vote today if Mitch McConnell were to allow it’

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) today called on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Republicans to do their jobs and bring common-sense gun legislation to the floor for a vote, including his bill to ban high-capacity magazines, instead of waiting for President Trump to tell them what he might sign into law.  Sen. Menendez made these in response to a reporter’s question following an unrelated press conference.

“The suggestion that we have to wait for the President to tell us what he will or will not sign is not the way that our Constitution and our government works.  The Congress – a separate, co-equal brand of government, passes legislation and then sends it to the President. The President can choose to sign it or veto it,” said Sen. Menendez.

“Republican, Independent and Democrat alike, have expressed high support for universal background checks, high support for my legislation eliminating high-capacity magazines, which are about high-capacity killing.  You don’t need 100 rounds to go hunting.

“The universal background check is pending before the Senate.  When I go back later today, the Senate could vote today if Mitch McConnell were to allow it to happen.  That universal background check would have stopped the shooter in Odessa from having a gun.

“The American people’s voices are rising. I think Republicans, to their peril, and the President, to his peril, listen to the NRA more than to the American people.”

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