From the Office of Rep. Val Demings and Staff Reports
Today, Rep. Val Demings (FL-10) will vote as a member of the House Judiciary Committee to pass HR 7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act. The legislation is a targeted package of bills, all previously supported by Demings, to close obvious loopholes in America’s gun laws, prevent mass shootings, and protect law enforcement officers and the public.
The 10th Congressional District of Florida includes Apopka.
“I carried a gun for 27 years as a law enforcement officer," Demings said. "I’m a gun owner today. Getting guns out of the hands of dangerous people will protect our children. Gun violence is not inevitable. The shootings that take the lives of our children every day are a policy choice, one that we can change. Today each member of the Judiciary Committee will choose between our children or the gun lobby. The gun lobby and their pawns want you to give up, to feel hopeless. I am here to tell you that there is always hope for a better, safer future. Americans are good people but we have to choose to do good things. Thoughts and prayers are fine, but faith without works is dead. Our children need us to protect them.”
Rep. Val Demings of the Florida 10th District
Demings is a Vice-Chair of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.
Gun violence is the #1 cause of death for children in the United States. A study reviewing gun deaths in 29 high-income countries found that 97% of all gun deaths among children 4 years old or younger happened in the United States, with the other 28 countries combined making up the remaining 3%.
The Protecting Our Kids Act is a legislative package that closes loopholes in America’s gun laws. It would:
- Raise the age for purchasing a semiautomatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21
- Restrict large-capacity magazines (Rep. Demings previously cosponsored this legislation)
- Establish requirements regulating the safe storage of firearms (Rep. Demings previously co-sponsored a portion of this legislation)
- Expand the ban on bump stocks and gun modifications that help enable mass shootings. (Rep. Demings previously led legislation including this provision)
- Restrict access to ghost guns, which are untraceable firearms favored by criminals (Rep. Demings previously cosponsored this legislation)
Demings led the Protecting Our Communities Act, legislation grouping several high-profile gun safety bills to:
- Regulate “ghost guns” by requiring gun kits to include a serial number and a background check to complete a sale;
- Regulate concealable assault rifles which fire armor-piercing ammunition and were specifically designed by gun manufacturers to circumvent the National Firearms Act;
- Help states enforce existing laws by requiring federal authorities to alert state and local law enforcement within 24 hours when an ineligible individual lies on a background check and tries to purchase a firearm; and
- Codify the last Administration’s ‘bump stock’ final rule to regulate bump stocks, which allow modification of a weapon to enable rapid firing.
Demings led the Law Enforcement Protection Act, legislation to regulate concealable armor-piercing assault rifles.
- These types of weapons are concealable and fire armor-piercing ammunition—making them as lethal as an assault rifle. Gun manufacturers have used technical loopholes to design unregulated concealable assault weapons that can penetrate body armor worn by police officers and kill dozens of people in minutes. This legislation will regulate these weapons as we already do other similar firearms.
- They are specifically designed by gun manufacturers to circumvent the National Firearms Act (NFA)—a federal law regulating the manufacture, transfer, and possession of firearms. Their concealability and lethality make them especially dangerous for law enforcement personnel.
- The Law Enforcement Protection Act would add armor-piercing, concealable weapons as a category under the National Firearms Act (NFA).
Demings strongly supported legislation to close the loopholes in our background check system:
- The Bipartisan Background Checks Act will extend the existing background check requirement for gun purchases conducted by licensed dealers to all purchases, including private sales, unlicensed dealer sales, online sales, and gun show sales. There are a number of exceptions in the bill to cover certain private, temporary transfers, such as for hunting purposes.
- The Enhanced Background Checks Act would close the Charleston Loophole. Current law allows a dealer to transfer a firearm to a purchaser after 3 business days if the background check has not been completed. In 2016 this loophole allowed 4,170 guns to be sold to people who should not have been able to buy a gun. In 2015, this included the shooter in the mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
- Background checks are supported by well over 90 percent of the American people – including 90 percent of gun-owning households, as well as dozens of leading law enforcement, veterans, local government, public health, and other groups
