Pelosi calls on GOP to form Select Committee on Gun Violence like they did on Planned Parenthood

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called on House Speaker Paul Ryan Monday to form a Select Committee on Gun Violence in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. 

"Congress has a moral duty to address this horrific and heartbreaking epidemic," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Ryan. "Charged with the solemn duty to protect and defend the American people, we must respond to these tragedies with courage, unity and decisive action." 

She also called on Congress to pass a bipartisan bill that would close background check loopholes to help keeps guns from criminals, domestic abusers and people who are mentally ill.

In recent years, Republicans have found an urgent political need for Select Committees to investigate Benghazi and Planned Parenthood (based on falsified charges), but not so much on the gun violence that injures or kills, on average, 114,994 people in America a year, including 17,012 American children and teens. Of course, many of these injuries and deaths are accidental and could easily be prevented with gun manufacturer regulation that requires things like “chamber load indicators,” yet the gun industry remains entirely unregulated to this day. 

.@SpeakerRyan, it’s time for action. Congress must create a Select Committee on Gun Violence. pic.twitter.com/yCpMOUKJKg

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 2, 2017