Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Dems Launch Forceful, Emotional Push To Get President, GOP To Address Gun Violence Now That Congress Is Back
The New York Times: Pelosi And Schumer, In Push For Gun Safety Legislation, Urge Trump To Defy N.R.A.
The top two Democrats in Congress called on Sunday for President Trump to defy the National Rifle Association and get behind legislation, already passed by the House but blocked in the Senate, to expand background checks to nearly all gun buyers. With gun control high on Congress’s agenda as lawmakers return to Washington this week after their August recess, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, sent a joint letter to the president, telling him that his “urgent, personal intervention is needed to stem the endless massacres of our fellow Americans by gunfire” and that he had a “historic opportunity to save lives.” (Stolberg, 9/9)
Reuters: Factbox: Democrats Step Up Calls For Gun Legislation As U.S. Congress Returns
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and other senior Democrats said on Sunday they will gather Monday afternoon to urge McConnell to "end his harmful legislative graveyard" and bring a House-passed bill expanding background checks on gun purchases to the Senate floor as soon as possible. The House Judiciary Committee is also expected to debate additional gun measures this week. McConnell said he would not bring a gun bill to the floor of the Republican-majority Senate unless it had the support of President Donald Trump, a Republican who has not provided details of measures he might support to address gun violence. (9/8)
The Associated Press: Congress Returns To McConnell's Legislative 'Graveyard'
McConnell has made it clear that he won't make any moves without Trump's commitment to sign the bills into law. But the president has flip-flopped on guns, first suggesting he'd be open to background checks legislation or other measures to try to stem gun violence, only to backtrack after speaking to the National Rifle Association and others in the gun lobby. The Senate leader is trying to avoid a politically uncomfortable situation of Republicans joining Democrats to pass bills, only to have Trump reject them. Against this backdrop, McConnell outlined what he must see before considering any guns legislation: "If the president is in favor of a number of things that he has discussed openly and publicly, and I know that if we pass it it'll become law, I'll put it on the floor." (Mascaro, 9/9)
The New York Times: Trump Aides’ Poll Finds Gun Control Politically Problematic For The President
President Trump assured Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, on Thursday that he was still considering legislation that could include background checks for gun buyers. But White House aides said they had polling data showing that gun control was politically problematic for the president, according to two people briefed on the meeting. Inside the White House, the issue of new gun control measures has largely been theoretical. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has cautioned that it will be the president who will have to press his party to act. (Haberman and Martin, 9/6)
The New York Times: How Congress Passed An Assault Weapons Ban In 1994
President Bill Clinton had just been ambushed by his own party. It was August 1994 and a coalition of House Democrats wary of any new gun restrictions joined Republicans to unexpectedly sink the administration’s big crime bill on a procedural vote that was usually a test of party loyalty. Afterward, Speaker Thomas S. Foley and his top lieutenants, all Democrats, trooped down to the White House with a message for a shocked president who was already struggling on his signature health care proposal: Drop a divisive ban on assault weapons or the crime bill won’t pass. (Hulse, 9/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump, 2020 Democrats Take Different Tacks On Mental-Health Policy
The 2020 presidential campaign has revealed a clear split on the future of mental-health policy, with President Trump focused primarily on addressing gun violence and his potential Democratic foes making a wider variety of proposals. Mr. Trump has focused on the issue in response to recent mass shootings, calling for more psychiatric institutions and making it easier to commit people for treatment. (Armour, 9/8)
Meanwhile, in other gun violence news —
The Associated Press: US Mass Shooters Exploited Gaps, Errors In Background Checks
Most mass shooters in the U.S. acquired the weapons they used legally because there was nothing in their backgrounds to disqualify them, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist with Northeastern University who has studied mass shootings for decades. But in several attacks in recent years gunmen acquired weapons as a result of mistakes, lack of follow-through or gaps in federal and state law. (Pane, 9/7)
The New York Times: Defying N.R.A., Texas Lieutenant Governor Favors Background Checks On Private Gun Sales
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas publicly endorsed expanding the state’s background checks to private gun sales on Friday, defying the National Rifle Association — a group that had previously given the conservative an A-plus grade for his Second Amendment bona fides. Mr. Patrick, a Republican who was elected to a second term in 2018, went so far as to say during an interview on Friday with The Dallas Morning News that he was “willing to take an arrow” from the gun lobby. (Vigdor, 9/6)
The New York Times: More Retail Chains Ask Customers Not To Carry Guns Openly
Several more of the country’s most ubiquitous retail chains said this week that they will ask customers to refrain from openly carrying guns in their stores. The requests, days after Walmart announced a similar policy, marked a notable shift in the debate about the presence of guns in everyday life in the United States. In a short statement posted Thursday, CVS Health requested that customers, other than authorized law enforcement personnel, do not bring firearms into its 9,900 stores in the country. Walgreens, with 9,500 stores, did so as well. (Zraick, 9/6)
Dallas Morning News: Two Years Of Mass Shootings In Texas, Dozens Dead. What Gun Laws Might Have Saved Lives?
Texas politicians are looking anew at ways to reduce gun violence in the wake of the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa. Dozens of policies, from the piecemeal to the comprehensive, have been proposed. But would any have applied to the gun massacres Texans have experienced in the past two years? (McGaughy, 9/9)
Health News Florida: Costs Of Assault Weapons Ban Weighed
If Floridians approve a constitutional amendment next year to block possession of assault weapons, a panel of economists on Thursday estimated the state budget could take a $26.9 million hit in lost revenue. But the head of the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research said the amount would likely be smaller because revenue lost in taxes from gun sales would be balanced out with other purchases that can be taxed. (Ceballos, 9/6)
