Congressman Cohen Votes for the Protecting Our Kids Act

Press Release

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, voted for the Protesting Our Kids Act this evening -- sensible gun safety legislation that is popular with the public -- and spoke from the House floor during today's debate on the measure.

The vote on passage was 223 to 204.

In his debate remarks, he said in part:

"There's no question that children -- and that's what they are -- should not be buying AR-15s before they're 21. In fact, I don't think they should be buying them at all…Those are weapons of war. Those weapons tore apart those children, decapitating them and made them unidentifiable. That was the purpose of those weapons and that's what happened. There's no reason for that to occur.

"The opinion in 2008 that gave the right to carry a gun was not unlimited and it said you could have reasonable restrictions. That's what Scalia said. These are reasonable restrictions…This country is wild with guns and we need to restrict them."

See the entire speech here.

The Protecting Our Kids Act would raise the age for purchasing assault rifles to 21, prohibit straw gun sales, ban untraceable "ghost" guns, require the safe storage of firearms, close the bump stock loophole and limit the capacity of ammunition magazines.

Source