Yesterday five members of Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence visited Congressman Conor Lamb (PA -17). We thanked Rep. Lamb for his co-sponsorship of and public statement supporting HR 8, the Background Checks Expansion Act of 2019. We we also happy to hear that he supports closing the 'Charleston loophole' and will look into co-sponsoring HR 1112, a bill which does this. The Charleston loophole allows persons in many states, whose firearms background check is not complete within 3 days, to purchase a weapon anyway. Both HR 8 and HR 1112 have already been voted out of the Judiciary committee and we hope the bills will see a floor vote soon. Mr. Lamb told us that the NRA has invested a substantial amount of money lobbying against appropriating funding for enforcement of laws that already exist. As a prosecutor he found resources to investigate and prosecute gun trafficking much less accessible than resources for drug enforcement. He suggested
this could be an additional front to address our efforts. As Mr. Lamb successfully prosecuted Pittsburgh gun traffickers funneling hundreds of guns into New York City, this is an issue he has real life experience with. He encouraged us to continue advocating for limiting high capacity magazines and banning military style weapons although he doesn't anticipate success on this front with the current Congress. Of course he recommended we make sure to support and work for candidates who support our issues in the next election cycle.
