853 people die by guns in Washington state in an average year; Nationwide over 43,000 people die by guns each year
The Guardian: US breaks record for most mass shootings in a single year after weekend murders
ICYMI: Senator Murray Helps Pass Bipartisan Gun Safety Bill, Calls to Do More to Keep Students, Families Safe – MORE HERE
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempt to pass the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023, legislation Senator Murray has cosponsored year after year. In Washington state in an average year, 853 people die by guns; nationwide, 43,375 people die by guns each year—a rate of 13 deaths per 100,000 people. Over the past weekend, shootings including an apparent murder-suicide in Clark County brought the U.S. to the grim milestone of having the highest number of mass shootings this year than in any year since at least 2006.
“Weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our communities. Gun safety laws work—despite what the gun lobby and their Republican allies in Congress would have you believe, this debate is settled. The majority of Americans support banning assault-style weapons, and it’s infuriating to see Republicans once again put the gun lobby ahead of the people they represent by blocking our Assault Weapons Ban today.
“Common-sense gun safety laws save lives—and every time our nation lives through the horror and heartbreak of another mass shooting, we hear desperate pleas from people back home begging Congress to do something. Washington state has made important progress on gun safety laws, including passing an Assault Weapons Ban earlier this year, but state laws alone are insufficient when it’s still so easy to acquire an assault weapon or evade a background check just across the border in a different state.
“Federal action is essential to tackling the epidemic of gun violence head-on, and whether it’s funding research into gun violence prevention, or pushing for universal background checks, or calling for a vote on the Assault Weapons Ban bill like we did today—as long as I’m in Congress, I’ll keep fighting to advance common-sense gun safety measures that will make our communities safer.”
Senator Murray, a longtime champion of common-sense gun safety reforms, has persistently called for federal action to address the gun violence epidemic tearing communities apart. As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has consistently fought for increased federal resources for gun violence prevention research—and she helped to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022. That legislation—the first gun safety bill to pass Congress in nearly three decades—enhanced background checks for gun purchasers under the age of 21, made important investments in mental health care and access in schools, helped to close the “boyfriend loophole,” and provided incentives for states to pass and administer red flag laws, among other provisions. In 2020, Murray helped usher in the first federal funding for gun violence prevention research in decades and has successfully fought to sustain that funding every year since.
In the 118th Congress, Senator Murray is a cosponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban, the Background Check Expansion Act, the 3D Printed Gun Safety Act, and the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (Extreme Risk Protection Order laws are another term for red flag laws). Senator Murray applauded the executive actions President Biden took last year to tackle gun crime and rein in the proliferation of dangerous “ghost guns.”
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