Rep. Scott Peters, along with local officials and gun safety advocates, on Thursday called on Congress to act on gun legislation.
The call comes a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a device that lets a semiautomatic rifle shoot off 400-800 rounds a minute, according to experts.
Peters (D-CA-50) admits the issue will be challenging.
“In the last 13 or 14 years, the Supreme Court has been unraveling decades of sensible gun regulation and made it really difficult as a matter of law just to pass something that they'll allow to go into force," he said. "The other thing is that it's become a partisan issue.”
But he said elected officials must put aside politics to protect people’s safety, especially children. Peters is co-sponsoring a number of gun safety legislation along with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-8), ready for lawmakers to act on once the election is over.
“Afterwards, we're going to have to work with a President of the United States who's been elected by the people," Peters said. "And at that point, I think there will be opening for discussion and for progress.”
According to a national poll published last year by the KFF, more than half of Americans say they have dealt with or been affected by gun violence.
Therese Hymer, president of San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention, was one of them. In her case, had a gun been safely stored, her friend’s brother might still be alive today.
Hymer supports gun safety laws to curb gun violence.
“While we're making progress at the city, county, and state level on gun safety laws, things are pretty much at a standstill in Congress," she said. "And that is unconscionable because so many lives are being lost.”
One of the bills that Peters co-sponsors closes the loophole allowing bump stocks and two others strengthen regulations on ghost guns — guns made from kits without serial numbers, making them untraceable.
Peter praises the city and county of San Diego on their ghost gun legislation. The city banned ghost guns in 2021 and the county in 2022.
San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl says it’s too soon to tell if the law is working.
“What I can tell you is we do get a considerable amount of ghost guns off the streets," he said. "Each and every one of them is coming from somebody that should not have them.”
According to the San Diego Police Department, 414 ghost guns were recovered between 2021 and 2023. In that same period, 200 murder, attempted murder and assault cases involving a ghost gun were prosecuted, according to the county.
