Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements as the House Judiciary Committee holds a markup on H.R. 2814, the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act, which would repeal the gun industry’s protection from legal accountability, and H.R. 1808, legislation to regulate assault weapons.
“Seventeen years after Congress granted the gun industry broad legal protection, these companies are flooding our streets with weapons of war and profiting handsomely, with little concern for the resulting human costs,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Less than a month after a bipartisan coalition in Congress broke a 26-year logjam on gun safety, the House Judiciary Committee is building on that momentum and pushing more common-sense action to address America’s gun violence crisis.”
“While assault weapons have been used to cause unconscionable harm in matters of seconds – in grocery stores and schools and at parades – gun manufacturers are raking in record profits while facing no consequences for their role in enabling violence,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “These weapons of war have no place in our communities, and our grassroots gun violence prevention movement is thankful to every member of the House Judiciary Committee who is putting public safety above gun industry profits by advancing these common-sense gun safety policies.”
Today’s markup comes on the same day as two hearings on Capitol Hill continue to highlight actions Congress can take to prevent gun violence. The House has already passed lifesaving gun safety legislation this Congress, including the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law last month, the Protecting Our Kids Act, a suite of gun safety legislation that incudes raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles and limits access to high capacity magazines, a bill to create a federal extreme risk law, a bill to require background checks on all gun sales, a bill to address the Charleston loophole, a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and close the dating partner loophole, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act— all of which President Biden has supported.