Congresswoman Chellie Pingree is headed back to Washington today where she plans to join colleagues in pushing for a vote in the US House on common sense bills to reduce gun violence in America.
"Gun violence has taken a huge personal toll on the lives of so many families in this country," Pingree said. "We can do a lot more to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them and this week Republican leaders in Congress should let us vote on two bipartisan pieces of legislation that have the overwhelming support of the American people."
Pingree is cosponsoring two proposals—a bill to expand background checks to cover all gun sales and legislation to block anyone on the "No Fly" list from buying guns.
Last week Pingree met with Erica Lafferty Smegielski, whose mother was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School and who was killed in the attack, as well as Wayne and Judy Richardson, whose daughter was shot and killed in Portland in 2010.
"Every week it seems I meet another person who is living with the pain of losing someone to gun violence. I have heard these stories first-hand from Maine families, from people who lost a loved one at Sandy Hook, even from my colleagues on the House floor who told very personal and heart-wrenching stories during our sit-in last month."
As Pingree heads back to Washington today, she and her colleagues are demanding a vote on these two bipartisan proposals as an alternative to the NRA-backed bill that House Republicans have decided to vote on later this week.
"The NRA works for the gun industry, not the American people. The legislation they are supporting does nothing to make our communities safer and would make it virtually impossible to stop suspected terrorists from buying guns," Pingree said.
Last month, Pingree and 12 of her colleagues started a sit-in on the House floor that was eventually joined by nearly every Democrat in the House and several dozen Senators and lasted for over 24 hours.
