“It’s encouraging — they’re still talking,” said one of those Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who is a chief sponsor of a background checks bill that fell to a Senate filibuster in 2013. That measure, which is slightly less restrictive than the House bill, would include certain exemptions for guns sold to friends and relatives.
But Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who is also involved in the talks, sounded a note of pessimism, saying he feared that if Republicans or the White House demanded a package of measures — as opposed to a stand-alone vote on a background checks bill — the entire effort would collapse.
“I’ve expressed my worry to the White House the package could get so big that it could all fall apart,” he said.
Gun safety has burst onto the Washington agenda in the wake of a string of mass shootings in August — three in Texas alone. Democrats returning from their August recess say that it has been a huge issue in their districts, especially for young people and parents sending their children back to school.
“The number one item to purchase for your back-to-school kids should not be a bulletproof backpack,” Mr. Thompson said. Referring to the background checks bill that has not been brought up for a vote in the Senate, he added, “This is absolutely insane, and Senator McConnell can do something about it. “
Yet even as they push for measures beyond the background checks bill, Democrats are stopping short of their most ambitious goal: an assault weapons ban. A proposed ban is circulating in the House, but its chief sponsor, Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, estimated he is six or seven votes short of the 218 required for passage.
The Judiciary Committee will have a hearing on that bill later this month. Mr. Cicilline conceded that passage may be a heavy lift.
“Every other bill that we’ve done tries to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” Mr. Cicilline said. “This is the one piece of legislation that keeps a particular weapon out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. A lot of people have enormous objections to that.”