“In America, there are more guns than people. There have been more shootings in 2022 than there have been days. We are only halfway through the year, and there have already been 246 mass shootings!
This past month has been particularly deadly: Our hearts broke for cities including Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa whose communities have been mourning after tragedies. Racine, my own birthplace, made headlines after there was a shooting at a funeral. A funeral!
Every day, we see gun violence being all too common in Milwaukee. We are all tied to the souls we have lost in these tragedies. Each loss means a family and community left to grieve and pick up the pieces. This epidemic is taking away fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, and our precious babies. It only strengthens my resolve to pursue long overdue solutions, many of which has broad support among the American people, such as strengthening background checks.
It is clear that we need these reforms because gun violence touches every community whether they are urban, rural, or suburban. We need solutions, not just more thoughts and prayers.
Democrats are advancing commonsense gun safety measures, including raising the age to purchase assault weapons, help stop ghost guns from flooding our streets, banning bump stocks, and ensure guns are safely stored in homes. We will keep working to make all our communities safe and whole.”
The Protecting Our Kids Act will:
- Raise the purchasing age for certain semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old.
- Cracking down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to get illegal guns off our streets.
- Close the ghost gun loophole.
- Strengthen safe storage requirements to protect children from accidental shootings.
- Outlaw bump stocks and high-capacity magazines for civilian use, as these only make mass shootings more deadly.
Read more about the Protecting Our Kids Act here.
