McCarthy: NRA coming to Capitol Hill next week

The task force was formed after last month’s shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut that left 20 children dead. The group wants to make its recommendations public by the week of Feb. 4 and is planning to hold daily meetings next week with gun experts, industry insiders and advocates on both sides of the issue, according to McCarthy.

{mosads}“A lot of people that are on the task force have never dealt with gun violence before, so we’re explaining as much as we possibly can,” said McCarthy on Tuesday to a group of reporters off of the House floor.

“We’re not telling anybody where to be on any issue,” she said. “We’re going to be bringing experts in to educate a lot of our members and every member makes up their own mind.”

The White House on Tuesday said President Obama will offer a “comprehensive” proposal to combat gun violence on Wednesday that will include bans on assault weapons and high-capacity clips and increased background checks on gun buyers‬

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the proposals would include “the assault weapons ban, including a measure to ban high-capacity magazine clips” as well as an effort “to close the very big loopholes in the background check system in our country.”

McCarthy acknowledged that not all of her colleagues on the task force were going to end up joining her in supporting a ban on assault weapons purchases in the United States. And some of the more liberal lawmakers on the task force feel that the country needs to take more action than just reinstate a ban on assault weapons.

McCarthy’s goal is to find a middle ground, more or less, she said.

“There’s a certain segment that will never vote with us, and they’re the fringe,” said McCarthy. “We have some liberals that don’t think we’re going far enough. If I can get three-quarters of everything I want, I’m happy.”

McCarthy said that she’s been talking with some of her more moderate Republican colleagues and is confident that some of them will vote with Democrats on the issue if it comes before the lower chamber. But she wouldn’t specify how many.

“What I had said to [Republicans] was, ‘Do your own press conference, come out as a group, and there’s power in numbers.’ And we should have nothing to do with that. Let them do their own thing.”