Rep. Haley Stevens Urges Leader McConnell to Pass Bipartisan Gun Safety Bills

WASHINGTON—After deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio over the weekend, Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11) joined several of her colleagues on the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to send a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to immediately call the Senate back into session to vote on two gun safety bills the House passed earlier this year. H.R 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act, passed with bipartisan support in February.

“Months ago, the House passed bipartisan legislation to improve gun safety by expanding background checks for all gun sales,” said Congresswoman Stevens. “Senator McConnell should reconvene the Senate and allow a vote on these common sense bills immediately. This is not about politics. It’s about the responsibility of government to ensure the safety of its citizens.”  

Rep. Stevens is a member of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. On her first day in office, Rep. Stevens sent a letter to her colleagues calling on them to make gun violence prevention a top priority. Rep. Stevens also successfully sought federal funding for research to study gun violence as a public health crisis, which was included in a recent appropriations package.

Click HERE to read the full text of the letter, or see below:

Dear Leader McConnell:

We strongly urge you to take immediate action to call the Senate back into session to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Check Act and H.R 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.

In February, the new Democratic House Majority took swift action to pass these bipartisan bills which not only save lives, but also has the support of more than 90 percent of the American people.  Since that time, you have allowed more than 150 days to pass and countless lives have been lost including those most recently lost in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois and the many others who will never make the headlines. 

This inaction must stop. We know background checks save lives.  Every day background checks stop more than 170 felons and 50 domestic abusers from getting a gun.  Any delay to pass commonsense gun violence prevention legislation only increases the chances that more innocent people in America may suffer from the tragic and needless loss caused by gun violence.

Again, we urge you to follow the leadership of the House Democratic Majority and immediately come back into session to pass H.R 8, the Bipartisan Background Check Act and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act, that could prevent dangerous criminals from obtaining weapons and save lives.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter of great urgency to the American people.

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