A Newtown, Connecticut-based gun control group is calling on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to allow a vote on dozens of pending gun control measures in Congress, in response to last week’s shooting at a school in Santa Fe, Texas.
The Newtown Action Alliance called on Ryan to allow votes on 56 gun control bills currently before the House of Representatives. They include a blanket ban on assault weapons and an increase in funding for mental health treatment to prevent gun violence.
The group’s leader, Po Murray, said the gun lobby’s influence on Ryan and other members of Congress is killing children in America. Ten students and educators were killed in the shooting at Santa Fe High School Friday.
The Newtown Action Alliance was founded in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Congress took up a bill to require universal background checks four months after the shooting. That bill failed in the Senate, as has every major gun control measure since then.