Rep Lieu Urges Action On Gun Violence, Votes In Support Of Protecting Our Kids Act

Statement

Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) spoke on the House floor in support of the Protecting Our Kids Act, a comprehensive package of gun violence prevention proposals to stop the spread of gun-related crimes and help prevent future mass casualty shootings. The bill passed the House on a bipartisan basis 223-204 and will move to the Senate for consideration.

Rep. Lieu's remarks as prepared:

"When I served in the military, I was trained on firearms. I want to tell you what a bullet from an AR 15 style assault weapon does to you. An AR-15 bullet leaves the muzzle at three times the speed of a handgun bullet. It has so much energy it can disintegrate three inches of your bone, turning it into dust. When a person is shot with an AR-15, it looks like a grenade went off in the body. A high-velocity bullet causes your human flesh to violently ripple, through a process called cavitation. Even if the AR-15 bullet misses your artery, the violent ripples in your flesh can burst the artery anyways. In Uvalde, Texas, little kids had their heads and faces blown off, so much so that parents had to give DNA samples to identify their dead child. A person under 21 cannot buy a Budweiser. Do not let them buy an AR-15 weapon of war."

Watch Congressman Lieu's Remarks Here

The "Protecting Our Kids Act" would:

Raise the lawful age to purchase a semiautomatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21 years old
Establish a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity magazines, with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses and the possession (but not sale) of grandfathered magazines;
Establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking and straw purchasers and authorize seizure of the property and proceeds of the offense
Establish voluntary best practices for safe firearm storage; award grants for Safe Firearm Storage Assistance Programs; provide a tax incentive to dealers for 10% of amounts received from the sale of safe storage devices
Establish requirements to regulate the storage of firearms on residential premises; create criminal penalties for violation of the requirements
Build on ATF's regulatory bump stock ban by listing bump stocks under the National Firearms Act (like machineguns) and statutorily banning the manufacture, sale, or possession of bump stocks for civilian use
Build on ATF's regulatory ban of ghost guns by ensuring that ghost guns are subject to existing federal firearm regulation by amending the definition of "firearm" to include gun kits and partial receivers and changing the definition of "manufacturing firearms" to include assembling firearms using 3D printing

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