House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan as Democrats began edging back toward calls for gun control measures that they had largely avoided after the June shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Pelosi calls on Ryan to form select committee to curb gun violence

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday urged Speaker Paul Ryan to create a Select Committee on Gun Violence that would craft "common sense legislation" in the wake of a Las Vegas shooting that has left at least 59 people dead and injured more than 500.

Pelosi wrote to Ryan as Democrats began edging back toward calls for gun control measures that they had largely avoided after the June shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Following the mass fatalities in Las Vegas, however, Pelosi called for "a day for action" as well as remembrance of those lost.


"As members of Congress, our words of comfort to the families of the victims of the Las Vegas massacre will ring hollow unless we take long overdue action to ensure that no other family is forced to endure such an unimaginable tragedy," the California Democrat wrote to Ryan.

In addition to the establishment of a bipartisan select committee that would "study and report back common sense legislation" to stop mass shootings, Pelosi also called on the Republican majority to take up a bill expanding mandatory background checks of gun buyers authored by Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.).

Pelosi last week rapped the GOP for considering two measures easing gun limits as Scalise returned to Capitol Hill following the June attack that nearly killed him.

Ryan's office did not immediately return a request for comment on Pelosi's letter.