Representative Adriano Espaillat, House Colleagues Take Action This Week to Combat the Epidemic of Gun Violence

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) will return to Washington, DC, where he will join House Democrats to confront the gun violence epidemic in communities across America.

According to new CDC data, guns are the number one killer of children in America: more than car accidents or cancer. Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active duty military combined. Democrats are committed to action to save our children’s lives.

This week, Espaillat and House Democrats will vote on two life-saving pieces of gun violence prevention legislation. The House will pass the bold and historic Protecting Our Children Act, a package of gun control bills that will tighten gun regulations, including raising the age to purchase semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 and bar large-capacity magazines. Additionally, the bill includes language to codify the ghost gun federal regulation, which I have been calling for since 2017 in my Ghost Guns Are Guns Act.

The Protecting Our Children Act will make an enormous difference in our fight against gun violence by:

• Raising the purchasing age for semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old (Title 1)
• Cracking down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to get illegal guns off of our streets (Title 2)
• Subjecting ghost gun purchases to background check requirements (Title 3)
• Strengthening safe storage requirements to protect children from accidental shootings (Title 4)
• Closing the bump stock loophole to ban these deadly tools from civilian use (Title 5)
• Outlawing high-capacity magazines, which are designed for killing en masse and have been the accessory of choice in the bloodiest mass shootings (Title 6)
• Requiring an annual report of demographic data of those being determined to be ineligible to purchase guns (Title 7)

Rep. Espaillat and colleagues will also pass the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, legislation to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others by implementing a nationwide extreme risk law and encouraging states to enact their own extreme risk laws.

"I look forward to my upcoming vote on the Protecting Our Kids Act and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act to combat gun violence that has impacted far too many families and taken far too many lives in my district and around the nation," said Rep. Espaillat. "These life saving measures will act to save our children and prevent another community from the devastation brought on by these senseless acts of violence."