The House is about to have its first gun violence hearing in 8 years

Mass shootings have become an everyday reality — and that's not an exaggeration. But take a look at Congress' schedule, and you wouldn't know it.

The Senate has only held a small handful of gun violence hearings since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, and the House hasn't had one. Now, that seems like it's about to change.

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced he'd scheduled a gun violence prevention hearing for next Wednesday. Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chair Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) rightly pointed out that something like this hadn't happened for eight years, saying he "implored" the previous Republican majority to hold one of these hearings but was "denied."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Since the last hearing in 2011, 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Another 58 were killed at a Las Vegas music festival, and some of the survivors of that shooting were killed at a bar just over a year later. Shootings have also rocked nightclubs, churches, movie theaters, and every other aspect of life.

The chamber tried to have a hearing on gun violence in mid-2017, but it was canceled after the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice. But now, after a slate of gun control activists poured money into the 2018 midterm elections, and gun control advocates like Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) were elected, that issue seems to be back on the table.