Weapons of war have no place in our communities
During my 20-year military career, I saw first-hand the devastation that military rifles and other modern weapons of war can inflict. I support the Second Amendment, but gun violence is a plague that has infected our society. It is a public safety issue that can no longer be kicked down the road. Congress has failed to enact common sense gun reform not because it lacks constitutionally permissible legislative solutions; rather, it lacks courage and leadership. In Congress, I will serve the people of the 10th District, not the NRA.
We can wait no longer. We must address gun violence now. I propose doing so in four distinct ways:
- First, we must understand the root causes of such violence, especially as it pertains to mass shootings. The Dickey Amendment—which has historically limited the ability of the Center for Disease Control to research gun violence—was recently repealed. However, Congress has not yet appropriated funding for this purpose. I will work to ensure the CDC is funded to study this issue in depth.
- Second, we must identify all gun purchases through universal background checks, eliminating “gun show” loopholes and ensuring mandatory reporting, so that no one with a violent criminal record or serious mental health issue can purchase a firearm.
- Third, we must reduce the likelihood and lethality of mass killings by banning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, restricting the sale of assault weapons, and raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21 years.
- Finally, we must prevent mass killings, not by arming teachers but, rather, by ensuring we have better security at our schools and other public places, thereby protecting the most vulnerable among us.
Guns fulfill an important place in our society, both for personal protection and for hunting or other sporting purposes. However, as the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, a gun-owner and hunter himself, wrote in this poignant majority opinion in D.C. v. Heller:
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…[It is]…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
Modern weapons of war—like those I carried as soldier in uniform and that have been used in nearly every massacre that has shaken our nation—those weapons have no place in our communities. I support common sense gun reform that will in fact protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms while also protecting our citizens—especially children in schools—from injury or even death.
Enough is enough. It is time to act.