CNN: Congressman Cicilline On Congress’ Role To Prevent Mass Shootings

“We have a gun violence epidemic in this country. 316 people will be shot every single day. 106 People die at the hands of a gun. It’s a public health crisis. It’s an epidemic. It’s a level of gun violence that doesn’t exist in any other developed country. There are things we can do about it. The House has already passed two important bills, universal background checks and closing the Charleston loophole, to make sure that gun sellers have time to do background checks. There’s a lot more we can do like pass the Assault Weapons Ban, and a number of bills to prevent high-capacity magazines. The Senate should move quickly on the two bills that are there, but we have a lot of work to do to reduce gun violence in this country.”

“The bill that we passed, universal background checks, is supported by over 95% of the American people, including the majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, and the majority of responsible gun owners, so there’s no controversy about this. We know background checks work. Three and a half million gun sales have been denied since background checks became the law, which meant that people who shouldn’t have a gun, or who were not legally entitled to possess one were stopped, so we know that they work. The problem is about 20% of gun sales happen without background checks. This will close that loophole. It’s bipartisan, it’s supported by 95% of the American people. The only place that seems to be controversial, is in the Republican cloakroom in Washington. And I think the Republican Party is going to continue to hear demands from the people of this country that they enact common sense gun proposals.”

“We have a responsibility to [act] so you can safely go to church and a synagogue and a shopping mall and a FedEx center without being worried about being gunned down.”