Bob Casey 3/20/2018 response listing bills

**rellisonii** · March 20th, 2018, 07:52 PM

Dear Mr. Ellison: Thank you for taking the time to contact me about gun violence. I appreciate hearing from you. Multiple-casualty shootings are devastating families and ravaging neighborhoods on an almost daily basis around this country. Gun violence in the United States has reached extreme levels, with approximately 33,000 Americans killed by firearms every year. Among that number in 2012 were the twenty small children, just six and seven years old, and six adults who were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December of that year. The Sandy Hook massacre affected me deeply. The shooter used a military-style assault weapon with magazines containing up to 30 rounds of ammunition. Realizing that he chose this weapon because he wanted to inflict the most damage in the shortest amount of time, and that he would have tried to kill hundreds of children if he could have, led me to reevaluate how we approach gun violence as a Nation. After careful study, I decided to support legislation to close loopholes in the existing background check system, as well as legislation to institute a federal ban on military-style assault weapons and to restrict high-capacity magazines. I voted in favor of these measures, as well as efforts to close a loophole allowing known and suspected terrorists on the Terrorist Watchlist to purchase firearms, when they came before the Senate for consideration in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Shamefully, none of these measures has gained enough support to pass the Senate. Since Sandy Hook, thousands of Americans have lost their lives to gun violence. We have witnessed some of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history at Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs and, most recently, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a gunman armed with a military-style weapon took the lives of seventeen innocent students and staff members, some as young as fourteen years old. In the aftermath of these tragedies, I have prayed for the victims, the survivors and their loved ones. I still keep them in my thoughts. But, their trauma and grief deserve more than sympathy. Their loss demands that we take smart steps to control the crisis of gun violence in this country. I stand with the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who have transformed their grief into a movement for gun reform. These students, along with so many other survivors and advocates, refuse to accept the daily reality of gun violence and have demanded that Congress listen to their calls for change. On February 28, I led a group of my colleagues in calling on the Senate Majority Leader, who controls what bills come up for a vote, to schedule a debate and vote on sensible gun reform measures. You can view those floor speeches here: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorBobC...8261492560331/ . I also held a town hall on gun reform on March 2 with students at Cheltenham High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The activism among students throughout the country has been inspiring, and I believe young people will continue to be a strong force for change in our response to gun violence. I support the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans to own guns for hunting, sport and protection. However, as a public official and member of the United States Senate, I believe my colleagues and I have an obligation to enact commonsense reforms that will keep Americans safe and reduce the likelihood of gun violence incidents. I support a number of gun reform bills in the current session of Congress, including:
• S. 2009, the Background Check Expansion Act, which expands federal background checks to the sale or transfer of firearms by private sellers, closing the online sale, gun show and private seller loopholes.

• S. 2095, the Assault Weapons Ban, which would ban the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons, as well as ban magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. This bill would also ban “bump-stock” devices like those used in the Las Vegas massacre, which can convert semi-automatic firearms into guns that emulate fully automatic guns.

• S. 834, a bill repealing current restrictions on gun safety studies at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and directing them to study gun violence, just as they would study any other public health hazard. This data would help us better understand the problem of gun violence and how to address it.

• S. 1324, the Disarm Hate Act, which prevents individuals convicted of violent misdemeanor hate crimes from getting their hands on a gun. I introduced this bill after the 2016 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, when a gunman with hate in his heart and claiming allegiance to ISIS walked into an LGBT nightclub with a military-style rifle and a handgun. He killed 49 people and injured 53 others. Four Pennsylvanians, two injured and two killed, were among the victims of this brutal shooting, the worst in the history of the United States at that time. If you have proven you will commit violent criminal acts based on bias against where someone comes from, how someone worships or whom someone loves, you should not have access to guns. It’s common sense.

• S. 1539, the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act, which would prevent individuals convicted of stalking, as well domestic or dating partners who have a restraining order against them, from purchasing or possessing firearms.

As we pray for the families and victims of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and as families across the country mourn their daughters, sons, parents and siblings whose lives are lost to the daily gun violence that pervades our streets, we must again commit ourselves to action. I refuse to accept that the best our Nation can do is simply enforce our current laws. It is not working. Too many families are devastated by gun violence, and too many others live in fear for their safety. We are a Nation of people who come together, roll up our sleeves and solve difficult problems. We can pass smart measures to reduce gun violence while fully respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. This problem is not going away, so we need to come together now. I will keep fighting to make our communities safe from gun violence. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you. For more information on this or other issues, I encourage you to visit my website, http://casey.senate.gov . I hope you will find this online office a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania. Sincerely, Bob Casey