WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leading advocate for reforming our nation’s gun laws and author of the Senate background checks bill, on Wednesday applauded the U.S. House Judiciary Committee for passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act. The committee is also expected to pass the Enhanced Background Checks Act, a bill aimed at closing the “Charleston loophole” in the background check system that made it possible for the gunman in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church to purchase a firearm. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on gun safety prevention in nearly a decade. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida, that claimed the lives of 14 students and 3 teachers. 

“Today, House Democrats began the long overdue process of fixing our nation’s broken gun laws. I’m proud that we took this historic step this week as we grieve and remember the lives of each student and teacher we lost a year ago in Parkland,” said Murphy. “Background checks are supported by 97% of Americans. This is a no-brainer. I look forward to seeing this legislation on the floor of the House for a vote soon.” 

This week, Murphy joined his Senate colleagues to introduce multiple pieces of legislation to strengthen our country’s gun laws. He joined U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in introducing the Keep Americans Safe Act, which would ban the importation, sale manufacture, transfer, or possession of gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition, and the Stopping the Traffic in Overseas Proliferation of Ghost Guns Act, legislation to block the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken controls over foreign arms sales and allow for the unfettered proliferation of untraceable, virtually undetectable, 3D printable guns that threaten public safety.   

Since his time in the Senate, Murphy has been a vocal critic of our nation’s gun laws. Last month, Murphy reintroduced the Background Check Expansion Act to expand federal background checks to the sale or transfer of all firearms by private sellers, with certain reasonable exceptions. Murphy also joined U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to introduce the Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act, a bill to close a loophole that allows people to use bump-stocks to turn semi-automatic weapons to automatic weapons, and the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019, a bill to ban the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Murphy also co-authored the bipartisan Fix NICS Act with U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), which improves federal and state reporting of relevant criminal history records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and was signed into law last year. 

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