One Year After Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando, Gun Lobby-Backed Members of House Natural Resources Committee Are Trying To Sneak Through Legislation To Enable Dangerous People To Buy Silencers With No Background Check, During Hearing TOMORROW
Listen To Audio From Today’s Press Conference Call Featuring Rep. Don Beyer, Rep. Anthony Brown and Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America Founder Shannon Watts HERE
WASHINGTON – During a press conference call today, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) and Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America Founder Shannon Watts each denounced the gun lobby and some members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, for attempting to sneak a dangerous provision into an unrelated bill that wou enable dangerous people to buy silencers with no background check whatsoever.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 14 at 10:00 a.m., the House Committee on Natural Resources is holding hearings on Rep. Jeff Duncan’s SHARE Act, which now also includes Rep. Duncan’s so-called Hearing Protection Act (on page 63) – legislation that would remove silencers from the National Firearms Act (NFA). Passed in 1934 to fight organized crime, the NFA requires silencer buyers to pass a criminal background check and comply with common-sense safety provisions. This legislation would strip all of these requirements for silencers and – for the first time in 80 years – felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill would be able to buy silencers with no background check, simply by finding an unlicensed seller.
Tomorrow, dozens of Moms Demand Action members will gather at the hearing to make clear that they are watching, and will hold the gun lobby and it’s congressional allies accountable.
Below are excerpts from today’s press conference call:
SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER OF MOMS DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SENSE IN AMERICA, PART OF EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY:
“This week we are marking two bookends of the most horrific mass shootings in U.S. history: the Pulse shooting in Orlando and the Charleston shooting at the AME church. The bottom line is that this so-called ‘Hearing Protection Act’ would be a boon for gun manufacturers, and a disaster for law enforcement and public safety. It isn’t about public health, it’s about profits. They are trying to keep this out of the spotlight because they don’t want a public debate about this dangerous legislation. Moms Demand Action volunteers will be there tomorrow to make sure the gun lobby and their friends in office know we are paying attention.”
REP. ANTHONY BROWN (D-MD):
“At a time when we should be doing all that we can to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods and law enforcement, deregulating silencers puts the public at great risk. The campaign to deregulate silencers is merely the latest attempt by the gun lobby and gun industry, in the wake of declining household gun ownership, to market yet another military-bred product that was designed for covert operations with little concern for its effect on public safety.”
REP. DON BEYER (D-VA):
“The timing of this is depressingly tone deaf. Yesterday was the first anniversary of the worst mass shooting in the country’s history at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and Friday is the anniversary of the mass shooting at Charleston AME church. Thinking about those two events, it’s impossible for me not to conclude that they could have been significantly worse if the shooters had silencers.”
“The ‘Gun Profit Protection Act’ would be a much more accurate title. While we’re talking about silence, let’s point out the silence with which they’ve tried to sneak this into a larger, unrelated bill. And let’s talk about the moments of silence, which represent the majority’s only reaction to the gun violence that will kill thirty thousand Americans this year.”
