Colorado Rep. DeGette Heads Up New Gun Safety Act
On June 2, the United States House Judiciary Committee approved a package of eight gun safety bills, and on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the series of measures. The package includes legislation introduced by Colorado Representative Diana DeGette and Florida Representative Ted Deutch that would ban the manufacturing, sale, possession, or transfer of high-capacity gun magazines, otherwise defined as a magazine that can hold 10 or more rounds of ammunition.
The legislation introduced by DeGette, known as the Keep Americans Safe Act, was initially introduced in April 2021 after a shooting in Boulder, where the gunman used an AR-style assault weapon with a high capacity magazine to shoot and kill 10 people in a crowded supermarket.
A number of the deadly mass shootings in the nation’s history have involved high-capacity magazines, including the recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. Experts suggest that preventing access to high-capacity magazines could be one of the most effective ways to protect our communities. This is because high-capacity magazines allow perpetrators to fire more rounds before having to reload which gives them the opportunity to kill more people in less time.
The federal government did take steps to ban high-capacity magazines in 1994; however, the ban expired in 2004. While the act would not apply to the high-capacity magazines that are already owned or to law enforcement, if approved, it would reinstate the previous ban of magazines exceeding 10 rounds including the sale and transfer of them.
The act would also authorize the creation of high-capacity magazine buyback programs and would give federal agencies such as the FBI and ATF to seize and destroy illegally produced high-capacity magazines. For the full content of the Keep Americans Safe Act as well as the full package of gun safety bills that will be heading to the House, click on these links or check out Congress.gov.
