Using Great Neck Middle School as a backdrop, Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington) on Friday called on Congress to pass legislation improving the current background check system and closing loopholes for the purchase of guns.
“If only Congress responded with the agility, and forcefulness, and the power that it did a year ago when Ebola threatened us. With respect to guns that are threatening us, the kids in this school would be a heck of a lot safer, and that’s what we’re calling for today,” Israel said. “In the year since then, there has not been one hearing in Congress. There has not been one committee in Congress. There has not been one bill in Congress. There has not been one finger lifted in Congress to deal with gun violence in this country. And I’m sick and tired of it.”
H.R. 1217, a bipartisan background check bill authored by U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.), officially known as the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2015, was introduced in March to expand the current background check system to cover all commercial firearm sales, including purchases at gun shows, over the internet or in classified ads.
Israel said the bill would require states to participate in a national criminal background check system, and risk denial of federal grant money should they fail to participate.
He added that it also “clarifies” the submission of mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and closes a loophole that allows people to buy firearms at gun shows.
Israel was joined at the steps of Great Neck South Middle School for the press conference by several public officials including Acting DA Madeline Singas, state Assemblywoman Michele Schimel, Superintendent of Great Neck Public Schools Teresa Prendergast, as well as members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an organization created to demand action from legislators, companies, and educational institutions to establish gun reforms, according to it’s website.
Israel said that 88 people die per day from gun violence nationally, totaling almost 30,000 deaths per year.
Singas said she witnesses the problem everyday in her line of work.
“This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s not about being a Republican or a Democrat. It’s not a gender issue. It’s not a race issue. It’s not an economic issue. It’s a universal issue that effects all of us every single day and we have to act,” Singas said. “I see it on the front line everyday as a prosecutor.”
Despite New York’s state gun show loophole law, Schimel said, a federal law would be the only way to prevent gun show loophole purchases.
“New York passed closing the gun show loophole. We have a universal background check in New York. We have the fourth lowest gun death rate in the nation but criminals know that,” Schimel said. “They’re going to go to another state. They do go to another state because they can buy a gun no questions asked at a gun show there.”
Former Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who was supposed to be in attendance but fell ill and could not make it, sent a statement which Israel read at the conference.
“I dedicated my 18 years in Congress to standing up to the gun lobby and doing everything in my power to enact common sense gun laws that would help save the lives of thousands of Americans each year. Words are no longer enough. Saying you want to enact change without putting the effort forward is not enough,” McCarthy said. “My work in Congress may be done, but so long as families like mine continue to be torn apart by gun violence, I will never stop fighting for increased gun safety.”
McCarthy’s husband, Dennis, was killed in 1993 by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road at the Merillon Ave. station.
Her son was also injured in the shooting, which killed six people and wounded 19 others.
Israel said the bill was co-sponsored by 183 members of Congress and hopes the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives will call it to a vote.
“I am hopeful that before John Boehner leaves, he will agree to just bring this bill to the floor for a vote. His members can vote yes, they can vote no. But let us vote,” Israel said. “And we’re asking speaker Boehner as one of your last acts before you leave, give your members the courtesy of being able to just vote on this bill. Yes or no. Give us a vote. That’s all it will take. I guarantee you that if this bill gets to the floor for a vote, I guarantee it’s going to pass.”
The bill would need 218 “yes” votes to pass, according to Israel.
He added that he was not sure what would happen if the bill made it to the U.S. Senate, but said he figures they would filibuster.
“The bottom line is this, we should make it harder for mentally ill people to get guns, not easier. We should make it harder for terrorists to get guns, not easier. We should make it harder for people who are on the ‘do not fly’ list to get guns, not easier,” Israel said. “But for everyday the United States Congress has moments of silence instead of acting, we’re making it easier for people who shouldn’t have guns to get those guns. That is an abysmal and tragic failure of responsibility in Washington, D.C. and it needs to be stopped.”
