U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) is pushing for an “assault weapons ban” and says he is working with fellow Democrats to pass one.
Cohen’s office issued a press statement on Thursday, discussing how he is urging his colleagues to advance the Protect Our Kids Act and also advocated a ban on “assault weapons.”
“Assault weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004. It was constitutionally permissible. It wasn’t until 2008 in the Heller decision when Justice Scalia said people have the right, based on the Second Amendment, to protect their homes with reasonable weapons. … The Second Amendment, like the First, is not absolute. … There are limits to the Second Amendment and assault weapons are one of those limits that we had for 10 years and during that time we had less mass killings in this country, and we should have it again,” he said during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee.
“The picture that Ms. Jackson Lee had up of those 19 children: the last time you’ll be able or anybody would be able to recognize some of them because when they’re hit by an assault weapon they cannot be identified. They are obliterated and they need DNA to identify them,” he added.
“They put holes in their bodies so large that there is no way they could survive. They are weapons of war and weapons of death and weapons of destruction that we should not permit out here. And when someone who’s 18 years old, right after their birthday, and one of the first things they do is buy an assault weapon – that should be a red flag,” said the Democrat U.S. representative.
He additionally tweeted on Thursday, “We need to ban assault weapons and I look forward to working with @RepCicilline to pass it.”
The same day he said, “NRA-funded Republicans have blocked gun law reforms for decades. The public is demanding action. We must pass the Protecting Our Kids Act.”
“There is something gun-crazed about our country that we need to deal with,” he said in another tweet.
“We need 10 Republican senators who are willing to vote for the lives of Americans … We are the only country in the world that kills our fellow citizens on a regular basis with firearms,” he added in an interview broadcast on C-SPAN.
On Wednesday, Cohen tweeted, “Appreciate the Speaker’s leadership. I had amendment drawn for tomorrow’s judiciary committee markup to reinstate 1994 assault ban (law til 2004).It is imperative that we debate and vote on this life saving measure. The guns are made to KILL and aren’t for sport or defense.”
As Cohen alluded, Democrats who hold the majority in the U.S. House can pass essentially whatever they want in that body. They will need 10 Republicans in the U.S. Senate to jump ship in order to bring gun control legislation to a vote.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Background Photo “Gun Show” by M&R Glasgow. CC BY 2.0.
