Serrano Applauds Obama Gun Violence Package

Statement

Congressman José E. Serrano announced his strong support for the gun violence initiative that President Obama and Vice President Biden unveiled today. Serrano applauded their immediate actions using executive orders and pledged to work on behalf of their legislative proposals.

"It is long past time to seriously grapple with the epidemic of gun violence that plagues our nation," said Serrano. "The ongoing killings of our children show that we cannot tolerate the inadequate regulation of guns in our nation. Our founding fathers guaranteed the right to sensible gun ownership, not an unrestricted, no-holds-barred, anything-goes smorgasbord of irresponsible gun ownership. I am very relieved that President Obama is taking immediate steps to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands, and is asking Congress to aid him in this effort. I believe Congress should act quickly on the President's legislative proposals.

"As Ranking Member of the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, I am happy to see that the President has asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission to study the effectiveness of gun locks and gun safes, and to propose steps to improve the safety standards of these products. This is an important step in reducing unauthorized access to firearms, and one I will support during the appropriations process.

"I come from a community where guns only do bad things. I hate gun violence. But I respect and understand the position of hunters, sportsmen and those who use guns responsibly. In return, I believe that gun owners can agree that some extreme weapons have no place in society and there are some people who should not be permitted to have guns because of previous behavior. I believe that's a fair tradeoff.

"While it seems to take a horrible tragedy to wake our nation up to the problem of gun violence, the reality is that this is an ongoing and persistent problem every day in every part of the country. New York took sensible steps to prevent gun violence this week. Other states should follow our lead. But for the scourge of this horrible epidemic to be wiped out, we need national legislation and regulations. Only then will we end the killings and the violence. I look forward to attacking this legislative issue and hopefully ending this awful problem."

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