No deal to end gun violence, U.S. Republican lawmaker says

[June 20, 2022]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers remain far apart on the most important gun safety issues now under debate in Congress, a Republican senator said Sunday, casting doubts on hopes that the United States could pass the first federal gun legislation in decades.  

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, makes an opening statement during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March 21, 2022. J. Scott Applewhite/Pool via REUTERS

"The issue that we have here is that we don’t have a bill," Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee told Fox News Sunday.

"I kept asking to see text and it became apparent that they didn’t have a bill and in fact they don’t have a deal at all,” Lee said.

Lawmakers have been under pressure to reduce gun violence after two mass shootings last month at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Last week, John Cornyn, the lead Republican negotiator in U.S. Senate efforts to craft a bipartisan gun safety bill, walked out of the talks, while the lead Democrat remained optimistic that lawmakers could vote on legislation before leaving for a two-week July 4 recess.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have an agreement on a series of "very broad promises,” Lee said. "But on the most contentious, controversial, potentially impactful provisions there is no language."

(Reporting by Heather Timmons; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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