Everytown, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Statement on House Passage of Legislation to Regulate Assault Weapons

WASHINGTON — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements as a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1808, legislation to regulate assault weapons. 

“The gun industry is flooding our streets with weapons of war and profiting handsomely, with little concern for the devastating human costs,,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Just weeks after a bipartisan coalition in Congress broke a 26-year logjam on gun safety, the House continues to lead the charge and push for more common-sense action to address America’s gun violence crisis.”

“Assault weapons have been used to cause unspeakable harm in matters of seconds – in grocery stores and schools and at parades, and are the weapon of choice for mass shooters for a reason,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “These weapons of war have no place in our communities, and our grassroots gun violence prevention movement is thankful to every member of the House who is putting public safety above gun industry profits by advancing this bill.”

The passage of these bills comes days after the House Oversight Committee held a hearing with gun manufacturer CEOs and just a week after two other hearings on Capitol Hill which highlighted the actions Congress can take to prevent gun violence. The House has already passed lifesaving gun safety legislation this Congress, including the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law last month, the Protecting Our Kids Act, a suite of gun safety legislation that incudes raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles, establishes a requirement to securely store firearms at home, and limiting access to high-capacity magazines, a bill to create a federal extreme risk law, a bill to require background checks on all gun sales, a bill to address the Charleston loophole, a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and close the dating partner loophole, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act— all of which President Biden has supported.