BY JASON COHEN
With recent mass shootings
in Atlanta and Colorado, lawmakers
are fed up and want
change. Among those is Congressman
Ritchie Torres who
wants gun violence declared a
public health emergency.
On Tuesday, Torres, vice
chair of the House’s Homeland
Security Committee, was
joined by Councilwoman Vanessa
Gibson, Council Candidate
Pierina Sanchez, the families
of victims of gun violence,
gun reform advocates and
Bronx residents as they called
for immediate Congressional
action on life-saving legislation
to prevent mass-shootings and
require background checks for
fi rearm purchases.
“The shootings in Georgia
and Colorado represent a
wakeup call,” Torres stated.
“There are too many guns
and there’s too much access to
guns.”
Recently, the U.S. House of
Representatives passed legislation
to require a background
check for every gun sale and to
end the “Charleston Loophole,”
which allows gun sales to proceed
even if the three day FBI
investigation into a buyer isn’t
complete.
“We know that background
checks save lives,” he stressed.
“We have the legal tools to prevent
history from repeating itself,
all we need it the political
will.”
According to the Gun Violence
Archive, in 2021 there
have been 118 people injured
in mass shootings, seven killed
in mass murders and in total,
10,327 gun violence deaths this
year.
What’s even scarier is that
there are an estimated 393 million
guns in this country, with
only 330 million people.
Torres stressed that the
government must treat gun violence
like a pandemic. However,
unlike COVID-19, this is a
manmade problem.
“Time has come to choose
people over guns,” he stressed.
The congressman explained
that if gun violence was declared
a public health emergency
it would trigger funds
that could be used to drive
down gang violence. Torres is
also calling on President Biden
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BRONX TIMES R 2 EPORTER, APRIL 2-8, 2021
to classify ghost guns as fi rearms,
so they can have universal
background checks down
on them.
He is also asking the Senate
to make a homeland security
and public health and safety exemption
to the fi libuster, meaning
that legislation pertaining
to public safety will not be obstructed
by the fi libuster.
Lastly, the congressman is
demanding a ban on assault
weapons and high capacity
magazines.
“If we allow these weapons
of mass destruction to circulate
freely on our streets and to
freely fall in the hands of dangerous
people then the number
one cause of gun violence will
never be broken,” Torres explained.
“If we refuse to protect
our citizens and children from
gun violence then we are failing
as a government. If we fail
then we will continue to have
the blood of our people on our
hands.”
One person who knows
the gun violence in the Bronx
far too well is Community
Board 3 member and local activist
Linda Kemp. Kemp has
witnessed bloodshed over
the years, including her own
grandson.
She is glad Congressman
Torres is urging the president
to declare gun violence a public
health emergency and hopes
universal background checks
are approved as well.
“If that gun is registered
then that youth may think
twice because it leaves a paper
trail,” she said as she held back
tears.
She stressed that people
should not fear going to the
store, the park or walking the
dog. Sadly, in the Bronx and
many inner cities that is the
case.
Kemp hopes politicians and
President Biden can feel like
what it is like to be in the shoes
of the families who have lost
people to gun violence.
“I not only speak for my
grandson, but I speak for all the
children,” she commented.
Torres and gun violence victims and
families urge congressional action
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Bronx resident Linda Kemp ,who lost her grandson to gun violence, demands
gun violence be declared a public health emergency .