Gottheimer announces common sense strategy to combat gun violence, ensure school safety

NEW JERSEY — U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) Friday joined with Moms Demand Action and announced a Common Sense Strategy to combat gun violence and ensure school safety, including ongoing discussions with members from both parties in the House and Senate, including with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, to get commonsense bipartisan, bicameral legislation to the President’s desk.

Steps included in Gottheimer’s Common Sense Strategy to combat gun violence:

• Red flag laws;
• Raising the age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle;
• Improved background checks;
• Addressing the gun show, Charleston, boyfriend, and bump stock loopholes;
• Putting in place new rules for proper at-home gun storage;
• Expanding access to mental health services; and
• Ensuring bipartisan, bicameral legislation can get to the President’s desk.

“There have already been more than 250 mass shootings this year — that’s more than the number of days we’ve had in the year. And 693 last year. Moms. Dads. Sons and daughters. Lives cut short. Families torn apart. Senseless violence,” Gottheimer said. “We need a Common Sense Strategy to combat gun violence and ensure school safety. That’s why I’m working with members from both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate, including with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which I co-chair, on commonsense bipartisan, bicameral legislation that can actually get to the President’s desk.”

“This week, in the House, we acted. We passed commonsense bipartisan legislation that would raise the age limit to 21 for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle, ban the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds, close the bump stock loophole, establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, and put in place new rules on proper at-home gun storage. It’s now up to the Senate to get those bills to the President’s desk,” Gottheimer said.

“At this moment, we ask for progress. We live in a country where grieving parents have to beg for basic gun laws. The Protecting Our Kids Act, which passed the House on Wednesday, is progress,” Larisa Mendez Downs of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America said today. “We know that responsible gun owners support common sense gun laws and responsibility is what’s key.”

There have already been more than 250 mass shootings this year, including Uvalde, Laguna Woods, Buffalo, and just yesterday in Maryland. According to New Jersey’s Gun Violence Research Center, Jersey averages 475 firearm deaths a year. Between 2014 and 2021, there were more than 127,000 gun violence related deaths in America, as well as 27 school shootings this year alone.

This week, Gottheimer helped pass commonsense bipartisan legislation in the House of Representatives that would raise the age limit to 21 for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle, ban the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds, close the bump stock loophole, establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, and put in place new rules for proper at-home gun storage. These reasonable steps would protect children and families, save countless lives, and would not interfere with the ability to hunt or for a mom or dad to protect their family.

That is why Gottheimer is working with members from both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate, including with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which he co-chairs, on commonsense bipartisan, bicameral legislation that can actually get to the President’s desk — a core pillar of his has Common Sense Strategy.

Gottheimer is also leading the following efforts to combat gun violence:

• Introducing the bipartisan ALYSSA Act, named after Alyssa Alhadeff, who was originally from North Jersey, and who lost her life at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, to require schools nationwide to have silent alarms and to support trained school resource officers.
• Cosponsoring and helping pass the bipartisan Protecting Our Kids Act in the House to raise the age limit to 21 for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle, ban the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds, close the bump stock loophole, establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, and put in place new rules on proper at-home gun storage.
• Cosponsoring and helping pass the bipartisan Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order in the House, which will empower family members and law enforcement to seek a federal court order to temporarily prohibit individuals from purchasing or possessing guns if they pose a danger to themselves or others.
• Cosponsoring assault weapons ban legislation to make it a crime to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon.
• Cosponsoring H.R.8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, to close the Gun Show Loophole by expanding background checks.
• Cosponsoring and helping pass the Enhanced Background Checks Act in the House to close the Charleston Loophole that allows a firearm sale to proceed even if the FBI has not yet completed a background check.

Gottheimer was joined Friday by Larisa Mendez Downs of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, as well as River Edge Councilwomen Lissa Montisano-Koen, Klodiana Malellari, and Indira Kinsella.