Dear Mr. Warthog:
Thank you for contacting me about gun safety issues. I appreciate you sharing your views with me.
I support sensible gun safety laws and strict enforcement of those laws
to help prevent crimes, suicides and violence committed with firearms. I
support the steps President Obama outlined recently to curb the gun
violence that plagues our nation, and I believe Congress can and should
work to enact legislation to prevent gun violence without infringing on
the rights of law-abiding citizens.
I was an original cosponsor of the Brady Law (P.L.103-159). This law
requires prospective handgun purchasers to undergo criminal background
checks before purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer. The
background check system is able to make 92 percent of background check
determinations on the spot, and since 1994, has prevented more than 1.5
million firearm purchases. Additionally, according to Centers for
Disease Control statistics, since the Brady Law went into effect, the
number of gun deaths in the United States dropped 22 percent, from
39,595 in 1993 to 30,769 in 2007. The number of gun homicides dropped by
more than 29 percent, from 17,024 in 1993 to 12,129 in 2007.
While the Brady Law has been successful in reducing gun violence, I
believe more has to be done. For example, only 60 percent of all gun
sales in the United States take place at licensed federal dealers, where
background checks are mandatory. The remaining 40 percent of gun sales
are conducted by unlicensed individual sellers, often at gun shows, and a
background check is not required. This means that across our nation,
any dangerous individual can go to a gun show and purchase a deadly
weapon without any form of background check. To close this ‘gun show
loophole,’ I am a cosponsor of the Gun Show Background Check Act. This
bill would enact the common sense principle that anyone who wants to
purchase a firearm at a gun show should be able to pass a simple
background check. Ten national police organizations support closing this
loophole.
Additionally, I am a cosponsor of the Denying Firearms and Explosives
to Dangerous Terrorists Act, a bill that seeks to reduce gun violence by
keeping firearms out of the hands of terrorists and criminals. Although
hard to believe, nothing in current law prohibits individuals on
terrorist watch lists from purchasing firearms, unless they fall into
another disqualifying category. This “terror gap” in federal law must be
closed, and this bill would do just that. This legislation would deny
the transfer of a firearm when a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
background check reveals that the prospective purchaser is a known or
suspected terrorist and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief
that the purchaser may use the firearm in connection with terrorism.
Keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists is just common sense.
I also have always supported the rights of sportsmen and hunters.
Hunting is a way of life for millions of Americans and plays an
integral role in modern wildlife management. But military style assault
weapons have no sporting purpose.
Because of these weapons, our nation’s citizens are in greater danger
and police officers across the country are encountering criminals armed
with highly lethal military style weapons.
To support our law enforcement community and to save lives, I am a
cosponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.
This legislation would prevent the future possession, manufacture, sale
and importation of assault-type weapons while grandfathering weapons
lawfully possessed at the date of the bill’s enactment. It would ban
firearms with detachable magazines and military style features, such as
grenade launchers, protruding pistol grips, and barrel shrouds. It would
support law enforcement officers across our nation, who should not be
forced to confront lawbreakers toting military arms. And it would
protect the rights of hunters by specifically naming thousands of
firearms with legitimate sporting, sentimental or other value that would
remain legal to possess.
This bill also would ban high capacity ammunition magazines. Studies
have shown that high capacity ammunition magazines are used in 31 to 41
percent of fatal police shootings in cities across our nation. They also
have been used by the perpetrators of numerous mass shootings,
including at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, the Tucson shooting
of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others, the attack on a
movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the horrifying shooting at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The Newtown shooting
alone left twenty six people dead, twenty of them children.
We must not wait until more places are added to this heartbreaking
list. We can and should act swiftly to protect our families and loved
ones from mass shootings. These measures have the overwhelming support
of law enforcement communities around our nation, who have implored us
to make changes to stop the flood of these types of weapons into the
hands of those who would use them for harm. I will continue to work for
common-sense gun safety measures.
Thank you again for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Carl Levin
Go figure, I tell him not to support it and the bastard is a co-sponsor.
