Rep. Gutiérrez Supports President on Gun Violence Prevention
January 5, 2016
Press Release
Issues:
“The best remedy for a do-nothing Congress is a do-something President who does what he can under existing law.”
Washington, DC – On Tuesday, Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) issued a statement about President Obama’s announcement of a series of executive actions related to curbing gun violence. Throughout his career, Rep. Gutiérrez has been an outspoken advocate for gun control measures, including commonsense registration and regulation initiatives like those proposed by the President. The Congressman has spoken about the toll that gun violence is taking on Chicago in two recent hearings of the Judiciary Committee (see: https://youtu.be/4UUjFAQ-QrE and https://youtu.be/CfNKhR9Tvys) and on the House floor (see: https://1.usa.gov/1f2RMDg). He supports targeted measures to ban or prevent the sale of particular guns that injure humans most often, including assault weapons (see: https://1.usa.gov/1YliuX7) and junk guns often used in crimes (see: https://1.usa.gov/1Z6g1FE).
The following is a statement by Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez:
When the Congress does nothing to prevent the death and injury of Americans by guns, the President is right to take action within his latitude of executive power. The Republicans and the NRA are already saying that this is the beginning of the end of America as we know it. They will scream, swear, and sue, but Americans are in a much more pragmatic place on gun violence prevention than the ideologues. They want the killings to stop and are willing to take reasonable steps to help.
It is a lot like immigration. Policies favored by overwhelming majorities of Americans are opposed by hardliners in Congress – who oppose reflexively anything the President is for – and will try to stop these actions from taking effect. The best remedy for a do-nothing Congress is a do-something President who does what he can under existing law.
Rep. Gutiérrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations.
# # #