Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) warned law-abiding gun owners that Democrats will do everything in their power to ensure AR-15s and similar types of firearms are confiscated during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.
The hearing was to consider H.R. 7910, the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” which would raise the legal age to purchase “certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles or semiautomatic centerfire shotguns” from 18 to 21 with “exceptions.” The bill will also “modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms [and] encourage the safe storage of firearms.”
Jones said Congress will pass gun control legislation and nothing, not the fillibuster in the Senate or the Supreme Court, will stop them.
“Enough is enough. Enough of you telling us that school shootings are effective life when every other country like ours has virtually ended. Enough of you blaming mental illness then defunding mental health care in this country. Enough of your thoughts and prayers. Enough. Enough. You will not stop us from advancing the ‘Protecting Our Kids’ Act today,” Jones said. “You will not stop us from passing it in the House next week and you will not stop us. If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it. We will not rest until we have taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities.”
The gun control bill being considered by the House is in response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a teenager, who was known to local police, killed 19 children and two teachers during an almost hour-long attack.