Issue Position: Fighting Gun Violence

Issue Position

I agree with President Obama that it is a political choice we make to allow gun violence in this country. I think it's high time Congress take on the NRA and establish comprehensive common sense legislation to reduce gun violence in this country. We can help stop the endless and senseless loss of life by implementing a few simple and widely popular reforms to the sale and use of firearms. Strengthening the role of federal authorities that regulate gun dealers will also go a long way in preventing future gun violence.

*Establish Universal Background Checks Universal background checks on all gun sales will keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people like violent offenders, domestic abusers and the mentally ill.[1] These background checks will also close the gun show loophole and help crack down on illegal gun traffickers.[2]

*Hold the Gun Industry Accountable President George W. Bush signed unprecedented sweeping legislation effectively immunizing the entire gun industry from lawsuits,[3] even though hundreds of thousands of guns go missing from the inventories of dealers' every year and wind up in the hands of criminals.[4] We should demand that this law be reversed, and the gun industry be held as accountable to its products and their business practices as every other industry.

*Expand Inspections of Gun Dealerships Federal Authorities are only allowed to conduct one unannounced inspection of gun dealers per year.[5] So, if a dealer passed their surprise inspection once, they won't have another for the remainder of the year. Sadly, this rule ends up encouraging bad actors to break the law once they've passed their annual surprise inspection.

*Fund the ATF's Inspection Efforts "Bad Apple" Gun Dealers are responsible for a significant portion of gun deaths in this country.[6] If the ATF had the resources and authority to regularly enforce the law, these gun dealers would be forced to comply with the law or be shut down. Already, it is hard to identify which gun dealerships are compliant with the law, because so few are inspected each year. The ATF simply does not have the resources to do its job.[7] Congress can save lives tomorrow by funding the ATF today.

*End High Capacity Magazine Sales Mass shootings are made possible by the killing power of the assailant where every bullet fired could result in a life lost. Limiting the carrying capacity of magazines will require assailants to reload more often and give innocent people the opportunity to escape and in such cases as in Tucson in 2011, the opportunity to overpower the shooter.[8]

*Ban Assault Rifles Banning assault rifles will save the lives of countless innocent civilians and police officers. At least half of mass shootings involve the use of an assault rifle because they were designed specifically for the intent to kill large numbers of people.[9] We can reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries during mass shootings in particular, by banning assault rifles.

*Reduce Street Violence with Intervention and Prevention Programs As State's Attorney for Prince George's County we prioritized intervention and prevention programs for at risk youth to stop gun violence before it happened. Successful programs like Operation Cease Fire and Night Light in Boston prioritize interventions, prosecutions of the most dangerous offenders and disrupting the flow of guns to gangs. Their holistic approach to addressing gun violence made communities safer and saved lives.

*Fund Youth-Police Initiatives Youth-Police Initiatives bring together police officers with the communities they are policing. These programs start important on-going conversations between police and the community about street violence, gang activity and solutions to these challenges. Team building exercises with young people, intervention programs for at-risk youth, community forums, and even group dinners can be implemented to de-escalate tension in communities and reduce violence.

*Prevent Accidental Gun Deaths Firearms and gun safety devices are not subject to consumer product safety standards and so no effort has gone into making guns safer to operate. Thousands die every year and many more are injured as a result of accidental shootings. In 2015, there were over 250 instances where a child killed or injured someone with a gun. There were also at least 100 children under 14 years old who were killed in accidental shootings, in the 12 months following Newtown.[10] We must hold the gun industry to the same standards as every other industry in ensuring their products are safe for users. Imposing safety standards on firearms will save lives.[11]

*Require firearm licensing and training If you own a gun, you should know how to operate it safely and store it properly within the jurisdiction in which you live. Proper training can better equip gun owners unaccustomed to the risks of gun ownership.[12] The improper storage of firearms is responsible for countless accidental gun deaths, many by children, and theft by criminals. Improper and unsafe use of a firearm is similarly responsible for very avoidable and unnecessary loss of life. Gun safety design features are being developed, and hopefully through law and in time they will be required on all firearms, but no firearm will be free from risk with an untrained owner.

*Fund Suicide Prevention Programs First of all, we should adopt common sense and meaningful reforms to keep firearms out of the hands of vulnerable and troubled adults. Suicide attempts, often driven by impulse during acute moments of emotional stress, most often result in death when a gun is involved.[13] In addressing gun violence in this country, it is not enough to stop at funding mental health efforts, but we absolutely need to fund mental health efforts to reach sick people who are increasingly a threat to themselves as well as others. Funding suicide prevention crisis lines, peer to peer counseling services, suicide prevention research through the National Institute of Mental Health, a National Violent Death Reporting System as well as legislation similar to the Families in Mental Health Crisis Act will prevent those most at risk from attempting suicide. These programs can especially be targeted towards providing help to veterans returning home from active combat.

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