The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold an emergency session on Thursday focused on gun violence prevention bills that will be sent to the full chamber for a vote as soon as possible, according to reports.
A committee aide informed NBC News that the committee would be preparing a package of bills called the Protecting Our Kids Act.
The package comes after a series of mass shootings across the country, most notably the shooting at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that left 19 kids and two adults dead.
Inside the Protecting Our Kids Act are bills that would make it a federal offense to import, sell, make or possess high-capacity magazines with limited exceptions, according to the aide. Other measures would raise the age for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.
The House of Representatives is out of session this week, but that has not stopped the Democrat-led committee from scheduling its emergency meeting, and an aide shared with NBC the goal is to put pressure on Republicans.
"We felt like we needed to do something big and comprehensive after two mass shootings in two weeks," the aide told NBC.
But even if any of the bills within the package were to be moved along to the Senate, they would most likely meet the same fate as other bills like HR 8 and HR 1446, which have failed due to a required 60 votes to be passed.
Currently, there are 50 Democrat and 50 Republican senators who have not shown any interest in swaying party lines.
Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn shared over Memorial Day weekend that there are plans to discuss gun laws. Still, it is believed that any discussion would be around the failures that led to the Uvalde shooting.
"We're already having those discussions in person and on the phone," Cornyn told reporters. "Look forward to meeting on Tuesday through a Zoom call to try to see if we can agree on a basic framework about how we go forward."
Senate talks have been focused on red flag laws, a form of expanded background checks, additional money for mental health services, safe storage laws, and a change in school security measures, a congressional aide told NBC.
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