Earlier this week new 6th District Congresswoman Lucy McBath announced she is co-sponsoring legislation expanding background checks for firearms sales.
The Marietta Democrat spoke from the House floor and at a press conference for H.R. 8, called the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019.” It would require background checks for every purchase of a gun, including those sold by private vendors.
She is one of 173 co-sponsors, most of them Democrats, who have made gun-control efforts one of their top priorities since taking control of the House in November elections.
McBath defeated Republican incumbent Karen Handel as part of that electoral surge.
The bill was introduced on Tuesday, the 8th anniversary of the shooting of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She was one of 13 people injured in a rampage that killed six others.
McBath’s 17-year-old son, a former student at Marietta High School, was killed at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a gunman upset at loud music coming from his car. She became nationally prominent in gun-control advocacy after that.
“Too often gun sales without background checks have allowed guns to end up in the hands of violent criminals,” McBath said at a Democratic press conference in Washington that included Giffords. “By closing these loopholes and expanding background checks, we will make our communities safer. . . Quite simply, background checks save lives.”
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