Kaptur Joins 'Sit-In' to Stand Up to Gun Manufacturers
June 24, 2016
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) recently joined nearly 200 of her Democratic House colleagues, including Congressman John Lewis (D-Georgia), and Ohio’s Congresswomen Marcia Fudge and Joyce Beatty, in a historic ‘sit-in’ of the House of Representatives to demonstrate on behalf of a debate and vote on reasonable gun control measures.
"I am proud to join with fellow Democrats to say 'enough is enough,' said Kaptur on Thursday. "That's what they said last October when four young children were shot in Cleveland in a month. One of them was 5 months old, Avia Wakefield, who was shot in the chest and she was in the car with her mother and her grandmother."
Continuing, Kaptur said "Ohio is one of 21 states where more people die from guns than die in motor vehicle accidents. Since 1999 in Ohio 17,476 of our citizens have died from guns. That's one every eight hours. And I looked at the statistics from Cleveland, Toledo, what is really disemboweling is to see the age of those getting killed is getting younger with each decade. The numbers start going up and those who are killed are younger and younger. We need Congress to fix this."
The focus of the demonstration was support for modest legislation authored by Congressman Peter King (R-New York) to prohibit purchase of firearms and explosives by individuals placed by the FBI on the terrorist ‘No Fly, No Buy’ watch.
Kaptur sought to find a bipartisan compromise to a pending terrorist ‘No Fly, No Buy’ amendment before the annual appropriations measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Her attempt at a compromise was rebuffed by Republicans who were caught off guard by her request. After a lively debate, the amendment was defeated, 31-16.
Kaptur attempted to work out compromise language on the level of suspicion required to prohibit individuals on the terrorist ‘no-fly’ watch list from purchasing a firearm.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued in March 2016, since February 2004, when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began checking prospective gun buyers against the Federal Bureau of Investigation's terrorist watch list, individuals on the watch list have had their backgrounds checked for firearms purchases 2,477 times -- with 2,265 of those transactions allowed to proceed to purchase the firearm, and 212 were denied. That is a 91 percent approval rate.
“Why are some defending people who are reasonably suspected by the FBI to be terrorists, or terrorist sympathizers? If there is reasonable suspicion that an individual belongs on the terrorist ‘no fly’ watch list then they should not be able to buy an AR-15, or any other firearm,” Kaptur declared. “No fly, no buy.”
The March 2016 GAO report is here:
Photo, from left: Rep. Joyce Beatty; Rep. Marcia Fudge; Rep. John Lewis; Rep. Marcy Kaptur.