Second Amendment advocates say the bill has little chance of passage but shows gun control activists’ true objectives.
Democrats have reintroduced previously failed proposals representing an exhaustive list of almost all of the gun control bills they have been pushing.
The “Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2023” (Act) has been introduced in Congress each session since at least 2015. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reintroduced the bill in the Senate on Dec. 6. She wrote on her website that legislation is vital to ending violent crimes committed with guns.
“We’re in a gun violence crisis: 2023 is on track to see the most mass shootings in recent history, and gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and young people,” Ms. Warren wrote on her webpage. “I’m renewing the push for my comprehensive Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act.”
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is sponsoring the legislation in the House. He wrote on his website that the proposed law would benefit minorities and women.
“It’s painfully obvious that communities of color disproportionately bear the brunt of gun violence in the United States, particularly Black women, who are twice as likely as white women to be fatally shot by an intimate partner,” Mr. Johnson wrote.
According to Mr. Johnson, the bill incorporates the other gun control bills in Congress.
“The Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act incorporates a number of bills,” he wrote on his website.
Ms. Warren’s bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Mr. Johnson’s bill is in the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The bills would nullify current laws and establish stricter gun regulations. According to a summary of the bill, at the top of the list is the requirement for a federal or state-issued license to “purchase or own a firearm or ammunition.”
The proposed law also calls for universal background checks and the elimination of the so-called “Charleston loophole” by requiring a completed background check before a sale’s completion.
