Pascrell Commends Historic Firearm Reforms

Narrow measure is a small breakthrough after decades of Republican obstruction

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today commended House passage of the Safer Communities Act.

“By any measure, our action today is historic,” said Rep. Pascrell, co-chair of the House Law Enforcement Caucus. “There are cities and towns across America whose names we will never learn because they will be spared the horrors of a mass shooting by what we have done today. What we pass today is progress to saving a lot of Americans’ lives, children’s lives, and that can only be judged as a titanic success that we do not achieve every day. Today Congress showed it can pass reforms demanded by tens of millions of Americans if a handful of Republicans are willing to do their jobs.

“I applaud the dozen or so Republicans in the other chamber who showed a rare semblance of sanity in allowing these commonsense changes forward. Yet, 193 House Republicans – 93 percent of their caucus – voted no on this narrowest of changes that was supported by law enforcement. We should be very clear why this small victory was so difficult. For decades, Republican politicians, propagandists and extremist jurists have lied every day to voters about the Second Amendment and resisted all regulations against gun violence. Their lies have perverted the Constitution, culminating in yesterday’s outrageous partisan Supreme Court holding that will flood our communities with more guns and more violence. Their lies have killed countless Americans in mass shootings.

“Future reforms remain essential and will only be possible if Republicans start truly prioritizing the safety of our communities. Today’s success does not absolve gun safety opponents from their deadly obstruction, and nor will it quench our pursuit of universal background checks and the banning of war weapons off our streets. We will never stop until we pass those reforms.”

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