House Republicans Will Only Pass Gun Control If Obama Recognizes ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’

This week, more than a week after House Democrats held a 25-hour sit-in and three weeks after 49 people were killed in a shooting in Orlando, the House will finally get a chance to vote on a gun-related proposal. Passing the legislation, however, would mean instructing the government to set up a department to focus on the “ideology” of “radical Islamist terrorism.”

The package up for a vote this week, the Homeland Safety and Security Act, includes a gun-control proposal similar to legislation introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Senate. Both bills — the GOP’s response to Democrats’ calls for gun control after Orlando — would notify the attorney general when a person who has been investigated for terrorism in the last five years tries to buy a firearm. The Justice Department would then have to go to court to prove “probable cause” to block the purchase.

The vote is largely symbolic, as Cornyn’s bill — even with National Rifle Association approval — failed last week in the Senate.

The bill is far from what Democrats were hoping for when they sat on the floor of the chamber overnight last month, singing and chanting and telling personal stories of gun violence. Some lawmakers have expressed their concerns:...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/05/3795524/terrorism-package-house-sit-in-gun-control/