Adams Votes for Life-Saving Gun Violence Prevention Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12) voted to protect our communities and schools with a strong legislative package to address gun violence.  The Protecting Our Kids Act includes common-sense gun safety measures that will crack down on illegal gun trafficking, keep weapons of war out of the hands of teenagers, strengthen safe gun storage, restrict access to untraceable “ghost guns” and more.

Additionally, Adams voted for additional legislation to empower communities to prevent incidents of gun violence before they occur.  The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act empowers family members and law enforcement to seek a federal court order to temporarily remove access to guns from those who pose a danger to themselves or others, while incentivizing states to adopt their own so-called “red flag laws.”

Adams will join March for Our Lives and other gun violence prevention advocates this Sunday, June 12th, at 11:00 AM at First Ward Park in Uptown Charlotte. For an excerpt of Adams’ remarks, please email Sam Spencer at sam.spencer@mail.house.gov.

“Gun violence is the leading killer of children in our nation,” said Adams. “From our schools to our streets, over 650 elementary school-age children have died this year due to gun violence, including the 19 children taken from us in Uvalde, Texas. The gun lobby and Republican legislators do nothing while gun violence claims the lives of approximately 110 Americans every day. Enough is enough. That’s why I voted to stop the bloodshed, both in Charlotte and in communities across the country. With the Protecting Our Kids Act, House Democrats are advancing more common-sense measures to keep North Carolinians safe: from getting illegal guns off the streets to banning high-capacity weapons to raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons. 

“Additionally, I proudly passed another common-sense measure: empowering communities to keep guns away from those who pose a threat to themselves or others. By allowing federal courts to issue extreme risk protection orders, this new legislation will help keep deadly weapons out of dangerous hands. I remain committed to ending America’s gun violence epidemic and building a safer future for our families, and our kids,” concluded Adams.

Background

Gun violence in America is responsible for more than 45,000 deaths per year, including almost 1,700 in North Carolina. Every day, 30 Americans are murdered with a gun – a number that rises to more than 100 when counting suicides and accidental shootings. In addition to this daily loss of life, gun violence continues to inflict a heavy financial burden – imposing $2.8 billion in emergency room and inpatient costs on Americans each year.

This epidemic of gun violence has continued to tear through communities across the country. Last month, Americans were horrified by mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – both carried out by 18-year-olds legally armed with semi-automatic assault rifles.  Just this past weekend, at least thirteen mass shootings terrorized more communities across the country.

The Protecting Our Kids Act takes key steps to address this crisis.  This bold legislative package includes several measures, including:

• 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.

The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act will allow family members and law enforcement officers to petition a federal court for an extreme risk protection order, empowering federal judges to prevent tragic shootings by temporarily removing firearms from potentially dangerous individuals. A study by Everytown for Gun Safety found that most mass shooters exhibit warning signs before carrying out an attack.  But without an extreme risk law, family and law enforcement lack the ability to temporarily disarm individuals considering acts of violence. Additionally, this legislation will establish a new grant program at the U.S. Department of Justice, incentivizing more states to allow their courts to take this same life-saving action.

Both the Protecting our Kids Act and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act passed the House and moves to the United States Senate. This legislation builds on the Democratic House’s twice-passed, widely-popular legislation to secure universal background checks for gun purchases and close the Charleston Loophole – action that is supported by nearly nine in ten Americans. 

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