In response to last month’s mass killings in Orlando, House Republicans crafted a counterterrorism package that included a National Rifle Association-backed provision to prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms.

That bill stalled because of objections from conservatives and Democrats, and the question of how to respond to gun violence grew only more intense after the the fatal police shootings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota and the killing of five police officers in Dallas last week.

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On Tuesday, House leaders said they would not move the counterterrorism package in the next few days for fear of inflaming an already contentious national debate.

“Right now, 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,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said.

House leaders would not predict whether the bill would resurface when Congress returns in September, but some members said the chances of that are slim.

“I think it gets very hard just simply because there’s not much time left in September,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).

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Democratic leaders criticized Republicans for punting on the issue.

“There are actions Congress can take to save lives,” Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said. “Does anyone believe we’re going to be immune from further mass killings between now and Labor Day?”

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Last month’s nightclub shooting in Orlando was the driving force behind the latest round of gun-control battles in Congress. Democrats and Republicans sparred in the Senate over competing measures to prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring firearms and to expand mandatory background checks.

In the House, Democrats staged an all-night sit-in on the chamber floor to call for similar gun-control measures. Republicans accused them of staging a campaign stunt and began exploring punishments for breaking rules of conduct on the floor.

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Democrats and Republicans have both said they want to stem the tide of gun violence and prevent would-be terrorists from acquiring guns, but they disagree bitterly over how to do it.

The GOP asserts the Democrat-backed bills are too expansive and trample on due process and Second Amendment rights. Democrats believe the Republican alternative “doesn’t do enough, or do anything quite frankly, to help law enforcement to stop those who want access to weapons who should not have them,” Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Calif.) said.

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The debate in Congress was already intense before the police-shooting deaths of two black men — Alton Sterling, 37, in Louisiana and Philando Castile, 32, in Minnesota — last week.

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The subsequent shooting of five police officers in Dallas further rattled lawmakers, who late last week began calling for a political truce as a way to try to restore calm to the gun-violence debate.

But that doesn’t mean Democrats are ready to let go of the gun control issue in the Capitol or on the campaign trail when lawmakers leave Washington for the summer.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were especially vocal last week, declaring that Congress would be responsible for “bloodshed on the street” if it could not pass gun control legislation.

But for now, the decision to put off gun legislation gets GOP leaders out of a political jam in their own ranks.

House conservatives were not happy with the counterterrorism legislation, worried that the gun-control language went too far and that the rest of the bill was adding too much to the national security bureaucracy.

Those members are not sorry to see the bill taken off the House’s calendar.

“In that form? Yeah, it’s a good thing it’s not coming up,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) said Tuesday.