WASHINGTON – Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives pushed for legislative action to combat gun violence on Wednesday, a day after U.S. Survey General Vivek Murthy declared the problem a public health crisis.
Murthy published a 40-page advisory Tuesday. It identified gun violence as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents, causing just over 4,600 deaths in 2022. According to the report, more than 48,000 Americans died from gun violence in 2022, an enhance of 16,000 since 2010.
The report counted mass shootings, suicides by gunshots and gunshot wounds. According to the warning, 79% of U.S. adults experience stress from the possibility of a mass shooting, and teens are more than 20% more likely to take antidepressants after fatal school shootings.
The recommendation came after a weekend of mass shootings in Alabama, Ohio and Arkansas.
Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida praised the Surgeon General at a press conference and urged his colleagues in the House of Representatives to push for further gun reforms.
“This declaration is a significant step forward in the fight to protect our communities and our children because it is a holistic issue,” he said. “It addresses ending gun violence in many different ways.”
Frost, the youngest member of Congress and former national organizing director of the March for Our Lives, listed ideas to combat gun violence in the recommendation.
This list also included regulations designed to prevent weapons from falling into “the wrong hands” through measures such as universal background checks.
The government could also support intervention in community violence, such as Programs in high-risk communities to prevent gun violence and lend a hand those affected.
Finally, and this is “one of the most important,” says Frost, “the creation of a society in which people do not feel the need to use weapons to solve their problems.”
Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California urged her congressional colleagues to operate the “new sense of urgency” created by the report to demand universal background checks and secure storage of firearms.
“Only the bare essentials,” she said.
Frost and Lee were accompanied by Dr. Joseph Sakran, an anti-gun activist and trauma surgeon and deputy director of emergency surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a city plagued by force of arms.
He called the recommendation “a historic step” that “will empower and urge policymakers to develop programs and policies that will impact not only cities but the entire country.”
He also referred to the upcoming elections, which he said would determine which gun reform measures could be passed.
Red Flag Bill
In a separate press conference on Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson and Salud Carbajal of California, Lucy McBath of Georgia, Joe Neguse of Colorado and Robin Kelly of Illinois announced they would file a motion to force a vote on a bill introduced by McBath.
The The invoice would allow federal courts to issue risk protection orders. It would allow police or family members to ask a court for an injunction prohibiting people who could endanger themselves or others from owning or purchasing firearms.
According to Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group, conditions have passed similar laws. Studies have shown that they reduce the number of gun suicides and prevent mass shootings, Studies in Indiana, Connecticut and California.
In 2022, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed Bipartisan Public Safety ActThe legislation provided funding and support for states with red flag laws to to ensure They have been “implemented in accordance with the constitution,” says the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
Thompson, chairman of the House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said McBath’s bill would lend a hand complement the 2022 law.
“Congresswoman McBath’s bill will ensure that the work we have done in this legislation and the money we have secured can be better spent in all 50 states and save lives,” he said.
Thompson said a discharge motion, a procedural tool to force a vote in the House, was the only way to get the bill to the House floor because House Republican leadership opposes gun control legislation.
Republican opposition
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has not been a supporter of gun control laws and told Fox News last year that he does not see gun laws as Effective.
McBath told reporters Wednesday that she hopes Republicans in her party leadership will oppose the bill. She said in private conversations, many Republicans have agreed with her that Congress should pass gun reform.
“I think they’re just afraid to side with their Republican colleagues,” McBath said. “But I think deep down they know their constituency is dying unnecessarily.”
Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Joe Neguse shared McBath’s concerns about Republican inaction and urged his Republican colleagues to support McBath’s bill.
“Talk is cheap,” Neguse said. “The so-called moderate Republicans in the House Republican Conference have an opportunity to prove that they support these warning bills. They can do that by simply coming to the House and signing the discharge bill.”
In the press conference opposite, Frost also shared his Democratic colleagues’ belief that Republicans will lend a hand push through gun reform. He pointed to the health secretary’s recommendation and urged listeners to operate the statistics to support their cause.
“If we focus on the science and the data, I think we can change some hearts and minds on the Republican side to actually get things like universal background checks passed,” he said.
