House Republican leaders are moving forward with plans to vote on two gun-related measures in the coming weeks. It will be the first time Congress has taken up the controversial issue since Donald Trump became president, Politico reports. A bill easing regulations on the purchases of gun silencers, which are also known as suppressors, could reach the House floor as early as next week. Another measure allowing concealed carry permit holders to take their weapons to other states is expected to move through the House Judiciary Committee and onto the floor possibly next month. Both proposals are almost certain to pass the House, despite opposition from gun-control groups. In the Senate, Democrats will likely block them. Trump would almost certainly sign the bills.
Nearly five years after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., left 20 children dead and prompted an impassioned debate over expanding background checks for gun sales, the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration are moving in the opposite direction. Republican congressional leaders and Trump administration officials — at the urging of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups — are looking to roll back restrictions on guns imposed during the Obama era. Gun-control groups claim that the NRA and its allies on Capitol Hill and inside the Trump administration are looking to help the gun industry, which has seen its sales slump since President Obama left office.