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Pro-gun Democrats have reached a compromise with the National Rifle Association to avoid an election-year showdown on gun laws in the District of Columbia.
The deal was negotiated with the powerful gun-rights group by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.), according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. The NRA has also signed off.
Details of the compromise were still incomplete late Wednesday, but a bill is to be introduced Thursday that would narrowly enforce a June Supreme Court decision rejecting the District’s decades-old handgun ban.
A vote on the bill could occur this week, but is more likely in September. Such a delay could give opponents of such a deal time to organize against it.
Republicans have filed a discharge petition to bring a broader D.C. gun-rights bill, sponsored by Ross, to the House floor. The goal was to capitalize on the Supreme Court decision and put pressure on conservative Democrats to buck their leadership on the issue.
NRA officials had threatened to use House members’ willingness to sign the discharge petition in their scoring for this year’s election. Conservative Democrats who didn’t sign it, most of them members of the Blue Dog Coalition, risked losing their “A-plus” ratings.
The compromise with the NRA is designed to remove pressure on Democrats to sign the discharge petition, which had 151 signatures as of Wednesday.
Some Republican leaders are angered that the NRA has been negotiating with Democrats rather than holding their feet to the fire.
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