Pictured are Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Democratic South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, who is the House Majority Whip and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following the mass shootings last week that killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas and nine in Dayton, Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and 213 members of the House Democratic Caucus on Wednesday wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky demanding he immediately call the Senate back into session to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.

Both these bipartisan bills were passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in February of this year and have been blocked for a vote by McConnell in the Republican-dominated Senate for more than 162 days, and with support from President Trump.

"Enough is enough," Kaptur said. "It is time for Mitch McConnell to call the Senate back from August recess to pass H.R 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act, that could prevent dangerous criminals from obtaining weapons and save lives."

McConnell has said that the Senate will not take up gun control legislation again until September when it returns to session, and that he does not intend to disturb the summer recess to debate the issue as demanded by Democrats, the president saying gun violence will be front and center come September.

Sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, H.R. 8, a universal background bill,  would close legislative loopholes and would disallow person-to-person gun sales if a background check cannot be conducted, such as those at gun shows, over the Internet, or from private dealers.

H.R. 1112, which was sponsored by Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Majority Whip and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would allow the unfettered blocking of gun sales by the federal government, the NRA in an uproar over the proposed legislation and cautioning President Trump on the measure.

Kaptur said in a statement Wednesday to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com that "the American people are tired of innocent people being gunned down in droves while firearm manufacturers continue to profit from legal sales of AR-15s, AK-47s, and 100-round drum magazines."

She and other congressional Democrats, and gun control advocates, say McConnell is stalling on the gun control legislation.

Protesters on Thursday picketed McConnell's district office and home in Louisville, Kentucky demanding gun control legislation, the federal lawmaker fighting back and saying "I will not be intimidated."

"No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!” dozens of protesters chanted, as shown on an Internet video.

One protester, either from McConnell's camp as a ploy, or among the picketers, purportedly called McConnell "a mother------,"an indication that tensions are rising around the volatile gun control issue, Democratic Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley urging Trump to curb his racist rhetoric, most of the victims in last week's mass shootings people of color

The president visited El Paso and Dayton this week relative to the tragic shootings with some family members of the El Paso victims refusing to meet with him.

Kaptur said the president is playing politics with the lives of Americans, gun violence responsible for tens of thousands of deaths annually in America.

"When we hear the president say he sees no political appetite to act on gun reform, he means he sees no political upside for the NRA or some in congress," said Rep. Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland, and the longest serving woman in congress. "The American people don't care what is politically expedient."

Adversarial Republicans argue the proposed legislation crosses the line and unconstitutionally infringes on the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment.

After last year's Parkland school shooting in Florida the president promised expanded background checks but later backed off following pressure from the NRA, that pressure mounting as the 2020 election nears and the gun control debate is center stage.

The president has since said he supports more gun control measures, a stance that follows mass shootings last week in El Paso, where the gunman used an AK-47- style assault rifle and later admitted to targeting Mexicans, and in Dayton, where the shooter used a semi-automatic weapon.

Republican dominated state legislatures across the country, including in Ohio, are  being forced to reexamine gun control legislation offered by Democrats following the celebrated mass shootings last week in Ohio and Texas, Ohio a pivotal state for presidential elections.

Behind last week's Dayton shooting, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican and former U.S. senator and state attorney general who beat Richard Cordray a former Ohio attorney general and consumer watchdog with the Obama administration, in last year's gubernatorial election in Ohio, has proposed expanded background checks for Ohioans, which Democratic state legislators in Ohio have been demanding for decades, if not longer.

"If we do these things, it will matter. If we do these things, it will make us safer,” DeWine said about an array of gun control proposals he unleashed this week in an effort to tackle Ohio's gun violence problem.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also top in Black digital news in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.