Building Safer Communities
Every day, 100 Americans are shot and killed, hundreds more are injured, and even more families have their lives changed forever. While we can’t prevent all of these tragedies, we can do so much more to protect our communities and families, and that begins with making sure that people who shouldn’t have guns don’t get them. This means:
- Building a robust system of interstate background checks on all gun sales to prevent people who shouldn’t have guns from exploiting the massive loopholes in our current background check laws.
- Requiring all gun sellers to certify that their gun buyers have secure home firearm storage.
- Passing the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act to mirror existing state legislation on the federal level. These laws allow concerned family members of people who are deemed to be in danger of harming themselves or others to seek permission for a temporary freeze on their loved one’s ability to purchase a gun. Two-thirds of all gun deaths are deaths by suicide, and these early interventions by family members and the courts can help save lives.
- Banning permitless carry nationwide. Josh supports safe use of firearms by trained, law-abiding gun owners and supports ending permitless carry so everyone can be certain that anyone carrying a weapon has the training to use it correctly.
We must also continue to support systemic and community-based strategies to prevent gun violence, such as:
- Adding legislative power to the Department of Justice’s community-based violence intervention and prevention efforts.
- Extending the current ARP funding for evidence-based community violence intervention programs.
- Continuing to fund CDC research into gun violence prevention. The CDC was frozen out of studying and quantifying gun violence for 25 years; we need to support and adequately fund their research so we can fully understand the scope of the problem and develop real solutions out of that research.
We all want to protect our liberty, and we also all want to make sure that our families and communities are protected from needless tragedy. It’s time to tone down the rhetoric and work together to enact common-sense gun legislation that both protects the rights of law-abiding gun owners and keeps guns away from people who intend to do harm.