Gun violence....took more people last year than leukemia

Below is the reply received from Senator Markey regarding sensible gun control.


We should be proud that Massachusetts elected a leader who carefully considers issues and takes a well reasoned position.

EDWARD J. MARKEY MASSACHUSETTS		218 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20510 (202) 224-2742
	United States Senate February 13, 2015

Thank you for contacting me about gun violence and firearm safety. It was good to hear from you.

Every American has a Second Amendment right to bear arms for the purposes of recreation and self-defense. However, I believe we must enact the proper protections to prevent assault weapons from hitting our streets and to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. The safety and security of Massachusetts' schools, neighborhoods and communities is of the utmost importance to me. Washington is lagging behind the rest of the country on gun control reforms. As a Senator, I will continue to fight for universal background checks, a strong assault weapons ban and a prohibition against high capacity ammunition magazines. It's time to get these military-style weapons off of our streets so that these deadly weapons don't fall into the wrong hands.

Last year, I introduced "The Handgun Trigger Safety Act" to ensure that only authorized users can operate handguns. In the 21^st century, we should use advances in technology to our own advantage and save lives. This is the type of gun safety legislation that everyone - regardless of political party or affiliation - should be able to support.

Senseless gun violence kills or injures more than 10,000 children a year and guns kill 30,000 Americans every year. We need to study gun violence like the public health crisis it is. That's why, during the last Congress, I introduced legislation, (S.2373) with my colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York committing to federal gun violence research. Gun violence research should be a permanent priority so that we no longer look back and say that we didn't commit any resources to a cause of death that took more people last year than leukemia. I plan on introducing similar legislation in the coming weeks.

During the last Congress, I was a co-sponsor of S. 1149, the "Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act," which bans plastic guns fabricated via 3D printers. That ban was reauthorized by Congress and signed in to law by President Obama on December 9, 2013. I plan on supporting similar legislation in the 114^th Congress.

I also cosponsored a number of bills during the last Congress that I believe represent common-sense solutions that will make our country safer, including S.150, the "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013," S. 22, the "Gun Show Background Check Act of 2013", and S. 54, the "Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013." Unfortunately, Congress failed to act on this important legislation.

I am a longstanding leader in efforts to reduce gun violence and I successfully fought for closure of a loophole that was enabling the importation into the United States of large quantities of Chinese assault weapons in the 1990s. As long as I am in the Senate, I will continue to fight for common-sense gun control reforms.

Now is the time to recommit ourselves to ending the plague of gun violence in America. Now is the time to continue growing a movement of activists to finally loosen the stranglehold the NRA and gun lobby extremists have on our country. Together, we can save lives and stop any more of these tragedies before they happen

Thank you again for contacting me about this issue. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. To sign up for my newsletter, visit http://www.markey.senate.gov/newsletter. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey
United States Senator