Senator Susan Collins of Maine was non-committal when she asked why the Senate would not consider a ban on assault rifles despite the pleas from some of the family members of victims killed in the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last month.

       The Maine Republican is one of a bipartisan contingent of Senators negotiating on gun legislation. Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are leading negotiations with Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

       “I think we’re continuing to make progress and everyone wants to get to a goal,” Ms Collins told reporters.

       Ms Collins’ words come as many gun control activists have flooded the Capitol to lobby for lawmakers. Activists in blue shirts from March for Our Lives, the group started by student activists after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, filed in and out of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Activists from Moms Demand also were on Capitol Hill this week.

       The House is likely to take more comprehensive legislative action as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is teeing up a vote on gun legislation this afternoon. Meanwhile the House Oversight Committee held a hearing that included parents of victims of the Uvalde shooting, as well as survivors from the shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

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       Kimberly Rubio, the mother of Lexi Rubio who was killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, expicitly called for a ban on assault rifles.

       “We seek a ban an assault rifles and high capacity magazines,” she said. “We understand that for some reason, to some people, to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns, that guns are more important than children.”

       But Ms Collins didn’t directly address the question.

       “Well first, all of these issues are being discussed by our work group, and what we want is to get a package that can pass,” she said, adding that she had met with families of loved ones who died in the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. “And they’re encouraged by what we’re doing.”