Durbin Statement On Failed Republican Effort To Weaken The National Firearms Act

Press Release

"Americans cannot gather to celebrate a holiday, a graduation, or even a funeral without the ever-present threat of gun violence. It goes without saying, but I'm going to repeat it--gunfire is the number one killer of America's children… One in five Americans have lost someone to gun violence. That's unthinkable around the world, yet it's the American way, sadly."

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"Today, [we faced] an effort by Senate Republicans to take a gun safety law off the books… They want[ed] to overturn a regulation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that prevents people from turning pistols into short-barreled rifles. This restriction is on devices known as stabilizing braces."

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"For almost 90 years, short-barreled rifles have been controlled under the National Firearms Act--along with machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. Why? Because short-barreled rifles combine the accuracy of a rifle with the concealability of a handgun. It is a deadly combination."

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"At a time when gun violence is the number one killer of children… this makes no sense whatsoever. But it defines the Republican Party's attitude towards gun control."

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"The ATF rule gives law-abiding gun owners plenty of options to comply. Remove the stabilizing brace, attach a longer barrel, or register the weapon like any other short-barreled rifle, because that is what it is."

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"The rule is common sense, and the last thing we should do is wipe it off the books."

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