Speaker Paul Ryan can't muster GOP support for anti-terrorism bills.

The self-proclaimed "Freedom Caucus" is proving to be House Speaker Paul Ryan's straight-jacket.

Speaker Ryan, R-Wis., and other members of the Republican leadership had hoped to hold a vote on a bill they said would help prevent terrorists from buying guns. But the Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 far-right GOP representatives, refused to back the measure.

Because Ryan can't muster enough Republican votes to pass his own measure and because he also refused to allow votes on Democratic bills addressing the same issue, there will be no House votes on gun bills until Congress returns to work in September. If you can call what Congress has been doing "work."

This fiasco is yet another example of dysfunction in the GOP-ruled House. The Freedom Caucus played a significant role in former Speaker John Boehner's decision to quit in frustration. That Ryan is similarly stymied on an issue of this magnitude represents a failure of his leadership — and a continuing failure of the House's ultraconservative faction to embrace any kind of compromise.

The Freedom Caucus objected to the Ryan-backed gun measure because, in their eyes, it trampled on Second Amendment rights. What was this egregious imposition? It would give the Justice Department 72 hours to block a gun purchase if authorities could show probable cause that the gun buyer was involved in terrorism.

Making people who might be terrorists "endure" a waiting period is such a mild proposal that even the National Rifle Association approves it. However, the House version also is so mild that it is wholly inadequate to the crisis America faces. A similar measure failed in the Senate — which at least allowed a vote.

In fact, a majority of senators (but not Florida's Marco Rubio) endorsed a stronger bipartisan measure that would expand background checks and bar gun sales to people on certain watch lists. Unfortunately, the majority was below the 60-vote threshold necessary to break a filibuster, so it died.

House Democrats reject the Ryan-backed bill as too weak. Prior to the July 4 recess, they held a sit-in attempting to shame Republicans into allowing votes on gun measures similar to the Senate's bipartisan legislation.

The protest didn't work. Republicans apparently are more horrified by the Democrats' breach of decorum than they are by the 49 shooting deaths at Orlando's Pulse night club or the five police officers' deaths in Dallas or any of the other mass shootings that should have prompted action by now.

Instead of showing leadership, Ryan advocates retreat.

"Right now," he said, "what we want to do is have a good conversation where we calm things down and we talk about solutions, about how we can better improve our communities and the relationship between law enforcement and the communities."

It should be abundantly clear that Ryan can't expect to have a reasonable discussion with his own Freedom Caucus. And it would help to calm things down if Congress took immediate action to try to prevent terrorists like the Orlando shooter from obtaining weapons.

What possible excuse can Ryan and the GOP offer if someone who might have been blocked from buying a gun goes on a rampage between now and whenever Ryan feels his "good conversation" has been dragged out for a sufficiently "calming" period?

Blocking sales to people on terror watch lists shouldn't require any more conversations, it's just good sense. So is alerting the FBI if anyone who ever has been on such a watch list attempts to buy a gun. Even if such sales are allowed to go through, police should be alerted to be on watch.

It is true, as some object, that people can end up on watch lists in error. Such mistakes can be corrected relatively easily. Selling an assault weapon to a terrorist who uses it to slaughter innocent victims is a mistake that can't be erased.