House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the country's elected officials have a responsibility to "ensure domestic tranquility" and called on the Senate to return to work to vote on the House's bill bolstering background checks for gun purchases.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi said she's heard "grave concern" from Americans and members of Congress about gun violence and the rise of heated rhetoric, including xenophobia and white supremacy.
"The Senate has to do the job," Pelosi said. "This is simple: They just have to take up the bill and send it to the president."
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have expressed a new openness to gun legislation in the wake of mass shootings this month in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Congress is on summer recess and McConnell, the Republican leader, has said he won't be calling senators back to session. Instead, he has asked committee chairmen to review possible bills for consideration when lawmakers return in September.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced Friday they will be returning early to consider other gun-violence legislation.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York said his panel will gather on Sept. 4 to consider a series of bills, including one that would ban high-capacity magazines of ammunition. The panel will also hold a hearing later in September to examine military-style assault weapons, which many Democrats want to ban.
Pelosi said elected officials have a responsibility to "ensure domestic tranquility" as outlined in the Constitution.
She said she's heard "concerns about white supremacy, xenophobia, guns" — what she called "an explosive combination" — that needs to be addressed.
"In the near, near future — in the immediate future — we must address the issue of gun violence and the attitudes that are making it less safe for some people in our country," Pelosi said.
"We have to do much better in that regard and I would hope that we can do so in a bipartisan way."
The House approved legislation earlier this year that would bolster background checks for gun purchases. A similar bipartisan bill has been introduced in the Senate, but some senators doubt it would deter the kinds of mass shootings like those the occurred earlier this month.
The gunmen in El Paso and Dayton killed a total of 31 people in back-to-back weekend shootings that stunned the nation and revived calls to tighten access to firearms.
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
