House Democrats Call on Boehner to Take Up Gun-Control Issue

Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesRepresentative Nancy Pelosi left a news conference about banning high-capacity ammunition clips with Representatives Bobby L. Rush, left, and Ron Barber, who was wounded in the same shooting as his former boss, Gabrielle Giffords.

House Democrats, coming out in force in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting massacre, called on House Speaker John A. Boehner to bring a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines to a vote by Saturday as a first step in a broader effort to rein in guns next year.

“What we need are not more words. We need action,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader.

Congressional Democrats are moving ahead of President Obama, who said Wednesday that he would submit broad new gun-control proposals to Congress no later than January. A raft of legislation has either already been introduced or is in the works, including a ban on high-capacity magazines, an assault weapons ban, tougher background checks, mandated background checks for purchasers at gun shows, and new rules to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, proposed a Save Our Schools bill that, among other things, would authorize Washington to reimburse state governments that use the National Guard to protect schools.

“This Christmas there will be unopened presents in Newtown,” Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Democrat of New York, said at an emotional news conference, backed by 30 other Democrats, including Ms. Pelosi and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.

Congressional Democrats have a powerful, emotional fuel behind their push to put gun control back on the national agenda: personal experience. Ms. McCarthy recounted the death of her husband at the hands of a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road, and her experience watching her son fight for life in an intensive care unit on Ch ristmas Day. Representative Ron Barber, Democrat of Arizona, who was shot by the gunman who gravely injured his predecessor, Gabrielle Giffords, recalled living through the 45 seconds it took for the gunman who shot him to fire 30 rounds, taking down 19 and killing 6.

Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, denounced the fantasies of “testosterone-laden individuals” like Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who have said the response to the massa cre in his state should be to arm more people. Such people, Mr.Himes said, “have blood on their hands.”

Representative Bobby L. Rush, Democrat of Illinois, told the story of his son, gunned down on the South Side of Chicago and pronounced dead with his family by his side. He told of the “primal scream” from his son's mother and sister when he died.

“I can't get that scream out of my consciousness,” he said.

Follow Jonathan Weisman on Twitter at @jonathanweisman.