Mayors Whose Cities Had Mass Shootings Urge Senate to Pass Bipartisan Gun Safety Legislation

Washington, DC – Nearly 70 mayors from across the U.S. whose cities have experienced a mass shooting this year sent a letter to Senate Leaders today calling on the Senate to pass gun safety legislation. Two bipartisan bills, S.736, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022, and S.529, the Background Check Expansion Act, have already passed the House and are awaiting action in the Senate. In the letter, the mayors urge the Senate to pass these bills and work to prevent other cities from experiencing the tragedies of gun violence that impacted their cities. The United States Conference of Mayors has long championed gun safety legislation to protect cities and communities across the country.

In the letter, the mayors write in part:

“As mayors of cities that have had mass shootings this year, we write to urge the Senate to pass during the lame duck session gun safety legislation that has passed the House and is currently pending in the Senate. We can tell you firsthand of the devastating impact these shootings have had on our residents and on our cities. While we will never recover from them completely, we must try to prevent them from happening in other cities in the future.”

The full text of the letter to Senators Schumer and McConnell can be found here and below:

December 5, 2022

Dear Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell:

As mayors of cities that have had mass shootings this year, we write to urge the Senate to pass during the lame duck session gun safety legislation that has passed the House and is currently pending in the Senate. We can tell you firsthand of the devastating impact these shootings have had on our residents and on our cities. While we will never recover from them completely, we must try to prevent them from happening in other cities in the future.

S.736, the Assault Weapons Ban, would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain semi-automatic weapons, bump fire stocks, and high-capacity feeding devices. It would exempt from the ban all assault weapons lawfully possessed on the date of enactment and would not apply to antique firearms, manually operated firearms, and more than 2,000 specified models of hunting and sporting firearms. It does not in any way infringe on Second Amendment rights. Its companion bill, H.R. 1808, passed the House of Representatives on July 29.

S.529, the Background Check Expansion Act would close serious loopholes in the background check system by requiring all firearm purchases—both handguns and long guns—to undergo a NICS background check, help prevent dangerous individuals from circumventing the laws on the books and obtaining deadly weapons, reduce firearms trafficking by prohibiting unlicensed transfers through unregulated secondary sales, and aid law enforcement’s ability to trace crime guns, which depends on licensed gun dealers’ sales records. It’s companion bill, H.R. 8 passed the House on March 11, 2021.

Congress came together this summer to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and both of these bills passed the House with bipartisan support. More than 90 percent of Americans support expanding background checks. Two-thirds support a ban on assault weapons.

How much more death and destruction must our residents and our communities endure before the Senate acts? The time to pass the Assault Weapons Ban and the Background Check Expansion Act is now.

Sincerely,

cc: Members, The United States Senate