WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03) voted to pass H.R. 7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act, a package of gun safety bills that would help save lives and prevent senseless gun deaths. This legislation comes following the growing national gun violence events including a white supremacist massacre of 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo and the slaughter of 19 innocent elementary school kids and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

“Like the rest of the nation, I ache for the loss of the beautiful children and wonderful lives stolen from us by mass shooters, suicides and sheer recklessness when it comes to gun policies in this country.  We owe the families and victims real action on gun safety policies that are being demanded by an overwhelming majority of Americans. We cannot accept the status quo and must wholly reject the notion that mass shootings are the cost of living in a free society. Living in a free society means we should be free to live our lives without fear of our children being gunned down in a classroom or a supermarket.  

While the Protecting Our Kids Act implements many critical reforms and it has my support, I also believe we should go further and reinstate a ban on assault weapons. There is no justifiable reason to have weapons meant for war roaming our communities.

We’ve seen time and again that the House will do its job while the Senate flounders. Gun legislation that does not include at minimum, thorough background checks and raising the age of assault weapon ownership is an insult to these victim’s memories. The Senate should no less. Passing watered down gun control laws for the sake of bumper sticker bipartisanship will likely cost more lives, and I am asking each Senator to consider if they are willing to have the blood of future victims on their hands?”

The Protecting Our Kids Act includes:

• The Raise the Age Act: raising the purchasing age for semi-automatic weapons to 21 years old.  Currently, someone could buy a semi-automatic rifle, the weapon of choice in many mass shootings, at just 18 years old – yet you must be 21 to buy a less lethal handgun.
• The Prevent Gun Trafficking Act: cracking down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to get illegal guns off of our streets.
• The Untraceable Firearms Act: subjecting ghost gun purchases to background check requirements.
• The Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act: closing the bump stock loophole to ban these deadly tools from civilian use.
• The Keep Americans Safe Act: outlawing high-capacity magazines, which are designed for killing en masse and have been the accessory of choice in the bloodiest mass shootings.
• Strengthening safe storage requirements to protect children from accidental shootings.
• Requiring an annual report of demographic data of those being determined to be ineligible to purchase guns.