gun-violence

The Internal Revenue Service should consider revoking the National Rifle Association’s status as a nonprofit organization in light a recent report that the group has enriched its executives at the expense of its 5 million members, a Democratic congressman said Thursday.

Rep. Brad Schneider addressed a letter to the commissioner of the IRS asking the agency to interrogate whether the NRA has misappropriated member dues into the pockets of a small group of executives in a series of sweetheart deals.

President Donald Trump meant what he said when he stated there were “very fine people on both sides” after a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Rep. James Clyburn said in a television appearance Sunday.

“I think he’s expressing what’s in his heart,” the South Carolina Democrat said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The family and defense attorney of a New York man convicted of threatening to kill President Barack Obama and Rep. Maxine Waters is asking that he be sentenced to home detention and probation.

Stephen Taubert, 61, was found guilty in March of targeting prominent black Democratic leaders Obama and Waters due to their race. But he does not have a history of violence, and the threats were just words, his family and defense team said, according to Syracuse.com. Relatives wrote that he “likes to provoke” and believes the First Amendment allows him to say anything he wants.

Republican Party operatives sent a package to an address in Tennessee they said they believed to be the home of Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath. But the congresswoman said the package was accepted by a relative and described the opposition research gambit as harassment.

McBath said she expects more packages.

The House voted Thursday to renew the lapsed Violence Against Women Act, but the proposal stoked contention over provisions restricting gun rights and expanding rights for transgender individuals.

Lawmakers voted 263-158 to pass the measure, which highlighted divisions within the Republican caucus. While the bill does have one Republican co-sponsor, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, other House Republicans objected to new provisions included in the VAWA reauthorization measure. In all, 33 Republicans voted for the measure, and one, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, voted present.

Rep. Louie Gohmert was skewered Friday for his statement after a white supremacist shot Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 49 people.

“There are courts, dispute resolutions, and legislatures to resolve controversies — there is no place for cold blooded murder,” the Texas Republican said in his statement.

U.S. lawmakers grieved for New Zealand on Friday after a terror attack at two mosques there killed 49 people — and some House Democrats said the episode served as a reminder that Congress must stamp out hate at home.

Mass shootings have plagued the U.S. in recent years, with minority and religious groups often the targets.

Updated 12:03 p.m. | House Democrats were in high spirits Friday after they passed the top item on their policy agenda — a package of voting, campaign finance and ethics overhauls dubbed HR 1 — but they’re not going to stop to celebrate for too long.

The new Democratic majority has been quickly, but steadily and deliberately, rolling out legislation to fulfill their 2018 midterm campaign promises and reintroducing bills that languished during the past eight years when Republicans controlled the House. 

The Violence Against Women Act is back on the House agenda, with Democrats and at least one Republican leading a fresh effort to reauthorize and expand the domestic violence law.

A bill introduced Thursday would include updates to the landmark legislation, which was first enacted in 1994. The proposal is sponsored by California Democrat Karen Bass and Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent.

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund is running digital ads to try to hold accountable lawmakers who voted against expanding background checks in the House this week. 

The ads, obtained first by Roll Call, target five Republicans who voted against the so-called Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019, as well as the two Democrats who opposed it. The legislation would require background checks for all gun sales between private individuals.