Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) postponed the votes for his gun control bill on Wednesday that would expand background checks for gun purchases. He moved the vote until after next week’s Memorial Day congressional recess.
Schumer said there will be no imminent vote on a gun control bill following the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed at least 19 students and 2 teachers. He called off the legislation from the floor to give Democrats and Republicans a chance to negotiate the legislation.
More from NBC News:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled Wednesday that the chamber will not quickly vote on a pair of House-passed background checks bills, giving Democrats and Republicans time to negotiate a possible but improbable bipartisan deal to address a spate of horrific mass shootings that have rocked the nation in recent weeks.
“My Republican colleagues can work with us now. I know this is a slim prospect, very slim, all too slim — we’ve been burned so many times before — but this is so important,” a skeptical Schumer said on the Senate floor, the day after 19 children and two adults were shot to death at a southern Texas elementary school.
Other Democrats, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., want to press forward with votes on gun-safety legislation immediately, putting their incalcitrant Republican colleagues on record.
The Democratic leader did, however, take steps that give him the option in the future to quickly bring the background checks bill to the Senate floor, but Democrats lack the 10 Republican votes needed to defeat a GOP filibuster.
The lefts are not happy with Schumer’s decision.