Issue Position: Reducing Gun Violence

Issue Position

I came to Congress shortly after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, determined to make a difference and prevent the next gun violence tragedy. After Sandy Hook, Aurora, Pulse nightclub, Las Vegas, Parkland, and countless other mass shootings, I am so saddened and angry at the refusal of GOP leadership to allow us to even take a vote on one of a number of bipartisan proposals to curb gun violence. Their refusal to address gun violence epitomizes the partisan dysfunction in Congress that Americans detest. No one law can end gun violence, but we cannot sit idly by while gun violence tears American communities apart.

I have co-sponsored bills to toughen background checks to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and other criminals. And I stand ready to ban bump stocks, high-capacity magazines, and weapons of war that have no place in our schools, our streets, or in our neighborhoods. I have also pushed to ban suspected terrorists on the no-fly list from buying guns. The majority of Americans agree with these proposals, but Republicans, beholden to the NRA, refuse to let us act.

To try to force a vote to strengthen background checks, I have read the names of mass shooting victims in front of the House of Representatives. And in June of 2016, my colleagues and I became part of history when we livestreamed the Democratic sit-in protest in the House of Representatives to force votes to strengthen background checks and prevent the sale of firearms to suspected terrorists. As a nationally recognized leader in this fight, I won't rest until the American people get the action from Congress they deserve to make our communities safer.

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