2nd Amendment
As background: I am a gun-owner and have been since I was a teenager. My first rifle was a Remington - Nylon 66 and it was a semi-automatic. I purchased it from the original Dick's Sporting Goods, and you can be sure that I was monitored closely and trained by my Dad and his friends, in addition to completing New York State's required Hunter Safety training. I have hunted and shot traps competitively, and own firearms to this day. I only tell you that, to tell you this.......
First and foremost - With 400 million firearms in the hands of the American public, effective changes to policy and the ability to effectively reduce the access to guns, is not going to happen anytime soon! As we work to make America safer, we all need to also work to protect ourselves. Whether you complete training and secure your own firearms to prevent accidents, follow red flag laws to prevent the wrong people from accessing firearms, or evaluate the venues you attend for their security, there is always more that we can do!
Schools, and other public places can be equipped with secure entrances, camera systems, metal detectors and scanners, security systems, and have the equivalent of 'resource officers' on site.
At home, you have the right to defend yourself, beyond locks and a security system.
Secondly, responsible gun owners are used to licensing, training and safety measures to protect themselves, their families and their friends. They are in the Federal Firearms Database. To enact additional measures to prevent illegal sales and/or prevent gun violence by others, does not seem as intrusive as it is sometimes made-out to be.
As a third point, 'Nobody is coming for your guns' - that still holds true! And as your representative, I would always protect the 2nd Amendment!
Most Americans agree with the expansion of background checks and closing gun show sales' loopholes. Most Americans agree with rules on safe storage, trigger locks, raising the age to purchase semi-automatics, waiting periods, and other steps to reduce this 'uniquely, American horror show'. And the majority of Americans want gun violence and mass shootings to be a thing of the past!
We need common-sense regulation of firearms and especially, those described as 'weapons of war'(semi-automatic, oversized magazines, etc) such as those being used in a majority of the mass shootings. Our technological and manufacturing advances in firearms has created weapons that go far beyond the laws and regulations that are in-place, and puts society at risk. 'A good guy with a gun' does not prevent all mass shootings or gun violence and the fact that 'police are standing down' in the face of the new age of civilian weapons are calls for change. We need to take steps to prevent the sale of firearms to those who may do harm to themselves or others, whether they are emotionally distraught, mentally ill, too immature for the responsibility and/or of a terrorist mindset. That requires us to have a system in place that identifies mental health issues, combined with the ability to intervene in the cases that require it. We all know that changes to mental health funding and care will help, and it will not be tomorrow or even next year. Republican politicians speak of mental health on this issue, yet, they have been defunding this healthcare line item for 3 decades.
Common sense should rule the day on all reform or regulation. With common sense, it is also appropriate to safeguard ourselves and public venues, as improvements and regulation evolve. With the sheer number of firearms in the USA, their abuse does not stop because we are talking about them.
I am willing to meet with gun-owners and their associations to help to find commonsense solutions that we can develop and agree to, in order to reduce access to firearms for those who pose a threat to the community.
Lastly, no matter what we do, with 400 million firearms in circulation, in a country of 330 million people, our annual number of fatalities due to gun shot, will never be zero.
The best way to protect the second amendment is to act in its behalf, and work to prevent the uniquely, American tragedy of gun deaths.