The gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis
I am grateful to share my latest endorsement with you: the Newtown Action Alliance.
The Newtown Action Alliance, established by residents of Newtown following the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, aims to combat gun violence through advocacy and legislative action. The alliance includes advocates, families of victims, and survivors of gun violence from across the country and their advocacy seeks to translate their tragedies into meaningful change through smarter, safer gun laws, and fostering cultural shifts.
At the time of writing this, the United States has already endured 75 mass shootings in 2024, and there have been 225 reported shootings in the last 72 hours alone.
Gun violence is a public health crisis, and I am grateful to Newtown Action Alliance for their work on curbing the epidemic, and will continue to do everything I can to stop the violence.
From Columbine to Sandy Hook to Parkland to Uvalde — and far too many others — our classrooms have become the scene of incomprehensible devastation too many times, as have our theaters, our concerts, our grocery stores, even our places of worship.
Last June, I supported, and Congress passed, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major legislation on gun safety since 1994. The bill contained a set of reforms that are both meaningful enough to make a difference but modest enough to overcome the filibuster. This legislation:
- enhances background checks for 18- to 21-year-old gun buyers;
- closes the so-called boyfriend loophole and further restricts gun ownership for domestic violence offenders who are not married to their partners;
- creates financial incentives for states to adopt red-flag laws that allow police or relatives and acquaintances to petition courts to order the removal of a gun if the individual is deemed dangerous; and
- funds school safety and youth mental health programs.
While these reforms, known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, do not go as far as many – including me – would prefer, they are a step in the right direction, and will save lives.
Other sensible, pragmatic steps that Congress can take – which I have voted for and which are supported by strong majorities of Americans – include:
- establishing universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals;
- banning large-capacity magazines and bump stocks to reduce the lethality of weapons;
- requiring safe storage to keep guns out of the hands of children; and
- raising the legal age for buying semiautomatic rifles to 21, which would have prevented the shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde.
There is so much work to be done on this issue, and I, alongside Newtown Action Alliance, will never let up on creating safer communities for our families.
More soon,
Rick
