Press Releases

With the U.S. House of Representatives set to vote on comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) announced her support for the commonsense firearm safety package in a video message:

“We've had a couple of horrible weeks in our country around gun violence. Whether it's people being shot when they go to the grocery store or innocent children at a day in school being gunned down by a murderer. We can't let this stand,” Congresswoman Pingree said. “But the fact is, this is going on every day in our country. There are … more mass shootings with guns than there are days in the year. It's time we pass some legislation. It's time we put a stop to this.”

Votes on the Protecting Our Kids Act and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2022 come in the wake of deadly mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., Uvalde, Texas, Tulsa, Okla., and dozens more in the past two weeks. Pingree is a cosponsor of both bills. 

The Protecting Our Kids Act (H.R. 7910), introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), is a comprehensive package of gun violence prevention proposals to stop the spread of gun-related crimes and help prevent future mass casualty shootings. The bill would:

• Raise the lawful age to purchase a semiautomatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21 years old
• Establish a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity magazines, with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses and the possession (but not sale) of grandfathered magazines;
• Establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking and straw purchasers and authorize seizure of the property and proceeds of the offense
• Establish voluntary best practices for safe firearm storage; award grants for Safe Firearm Storage Assistance Programs; provide a tax incentive to dealers for 10% of amounts received from the sale of safe storage devices
• Establish requirements to regulate the storage of firearms on residential premises; create criminal penalties for violation of the requirements
• Build on ATF’s regulatory bump stock ban by listing bump stocks under the National Firearms Act (like machineguns) and statutorily banning the manufacture, sale, or possession of bump stocks for civilian use
• Build on ATF’s regulatory ban of ghost guns by ensuring that ghost guns are subject to existing federal firearm regulation by amending the definition of “firearm” to include gun kits and partial receivers and changing the definition of “manufacturing firearms” to include assembling firearms using 3D printing

The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (H.R. 2377), introduced by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), would establish a “red flag” pathway in federal court for law enforcement and family members to temporarily remove access to firearms for people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Last March, Pingree voted with the House to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would expand the current federal background check to cover nearly all firearm sales, and H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act, to close the so-called “Charleston loophole,” which enables some firearms to be transferred by licensed gun dealers before the required background checks have been completed. Learn more about Pingree’s efforts to prevent gun violence here.

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