National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre is joining the list of those testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 30 about the gun control issue.
LaPierre and the NRA, Washington's most-powerful lobbying group, have come out strongly against any new gun-control laws following the Newtown, Conn. school shootings, in which 20 children and six teachers were slain.
Instead of further gun control measures, the NRA is pushing for armed guards in schools. The organization has also released a controversial video that asks why President Barack Obama's daughters deserve armed protection while other school children do not.
The hearing is being called as public support grows for some gun control proposals, including expanded background checks on people purchasing firearms.
Mark Kelly, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrille Giffords of Arizona, will also testify before the committee,
reports Politico. Giffords and Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy captain and astronaut, recently founded a group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, to lobby for gun control.
Giffords was forced to step away from politics after she was seriously wounded in a January 2011 shooting that killed six other people.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy plans to bring up a gun control bill in his panel as early as February, aides to the Vermont Democratic senator said.
Meanwhile, two prominent Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York hope to have a bill on the floor soon after Leahy presents it.
The committee has called several other witnesses, including Fordham University School of Law professor Nicholas Johnson; Baltimore Police Chief James Johnson; and Gayle Trotter, an attorney and senior fellow at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum.
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