Blumenthal, Murphy Announce Commonsense Bill To Restrict Assault Weapons, High-Capacity Ammo

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Representatives Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) to introduce the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, new legislation that would ban certain military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

“This measure would have helped to prevent the Newtown tragedy. But for the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like the ones banned by this measure, hundreds of thousands of Americans including the 20 children and six educators killed in Newtown might well be alive today,” said Blumenthal. “Military-style assault weapons – weapons not designed for self-defense or hunting, but rather for killing as many people as quickly as possible – have no place in our communities. My hope is that we will seize this moment with a sense of urgency and passion. Newtown is a call to action, a call for real reform – and we must always remember this terrible tragedy and keep faith with its victims.”

“Words can’t begin to convey the devastation felt by the families of the victims in Newtown and by thousands of other families throughout the country affected by gun violence like those here today,” said Murphy. “Since the first of the year, over 6,000 people have been shot in the United States, and since the tragedy in Newtown, gun violence has killed nearly 1,200 people. If those horrific stats aren’t enough to move this Congress to act, I don’t know what will. If assault weapons and high capacity magazines were not so readily available, including the weapon Adam Lanza used to take 26 lives last month, there would be more little boys and girls alive in Newtown today. There are no longer any excuses for inaction—it’s time for Congress to get to work.”

A summary of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 can be found here: http://blumenthal.senate.gov/download/?id=5d6354e6-3ade-45cd-a057-dcc96ac2db2b.

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