Eliot Lance Engel is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from New York from 1989 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented a district covering portions of the north Bronx and southern Westchester County.
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress when prosecutors chose to not prosecute cases. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Christopher Scott Murphy is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Connecticut since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Connecticut's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2013. Before being elected to Congress, Murphy was a member of both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving two terms each in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1999–2003) and the Connecticut Senate (2003–2007).
Jared Schutz Polis is an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019.
Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was formed in 2013 due to a merger between Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Joseph John Heck is an American physician and politician who served as the United States representative for Nevada's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2017. Heck is a United States Army major general and a board-certified physician who previously served as a Nevada state senator from 2004 to 2008. He ran for the United States Senate in 2016, losing to Catherine Cortez Masto.
Theodore Eliot Deutch is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative from Florida's 22nd congressional district from 2010 to 2022. His district, numbered as the 19th district from 2010 to 2013 and as the 21st from 2013 to 2017, included much of northern Broward County and southern Palm Beach County in South Florida. A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered Congress in 2010 after a special election following the resignation of Robert Wexler.
Patrick Leo Meehan is a former American Republican Party politician and federal prosecutor from Pennsylvania who represented parts of Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 until his resignation in 2018. He succeeded Democrat Joe Sestak, who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate.
Dennis Alan Ross is an American businessman and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019. A Republican from Florida, his district was numbered as Florida's 12th congressional district during his first two years in Congress, and it was numbered as the 15th district during his last six years in Congress.
Peter Rey Aguilar is an American politician who has been chair of the House Democratic Caucus since 2023. He has been the U.S. representative for California's 33rd congressional district since 2015. He served as mayor of Redlands, California, from 2010 to 2014, and as the president of the Inland Empire Division of the League of California Cities. Aguilar served on the Redlands City Council from 2006 until his election to Congress.
Assault weapons legislation in the United States refers to bills and laws that define and restrict or make illegal the manufacture, transfer, and possession of assault weapons. How these firearms are defined and regulated varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; generally, this constitutes a list of specific firearms and combinations of features on semiautomatic firearms.
Elissa Blair Slotkin is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 7th congressional district since 2019. The district, numbered as the 8th district from 2019 to 2023, is based in Lansing and stretches into Detroit's outer western suburbs.
In the United States, a red flag law is a gun law that permits a state court to order the temporary seizure of firearms from a person who they believe may present a danger. A judge makes the determination to issue the order based on statements and actions made by the gun owner in question. Refusal to comply with the order is punishable as a criminal offense. After a set time, the guns are returned to the person from whom they were seized unless another court hearing extends the period of confiscation.
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami suburban town of Parkland, Florida, United States, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. Cruz, a former student at the school, fled the scene on foot by blending in with other students and was arrested without incident approximately one hour and twenty minutes later in nearby Coral Springs. Police and prosecutors investigated "a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior".
Ryan Blaine Petty is an American school safety activist. His 14-year-old daughter Alaina Petty was murdered in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. Petty is credited with helping to pass the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act" Florida Senate Bill 7026 just three weeks after his daughter Alaina was murdered. At the federal level, Petty worked with Senators Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson to pass the STOP School Violence Act and the Fix NICS Act of 2017. He has met frequently with former Florida governor Rick Scott, and many federal lawmakers.
John Delaney is a Democrat who served as the U.S. Representative representing Maryland's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He announced his 2020 campaign for President of the United States on July 28, 2017. He suspended his campaign on January 31, 2020.
Amy Jean Klobuchar is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota's affiliate of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the Hennepin County Attorney. She ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 election, before pulling out in March and endorsing Joe Biden.
The Extreme Risk Protection Order Act is federal gun control legislation to support State, Tribal, and local efforts under "red flag laws" to remove access to firearms from individuals who are considered a danger to themselves or others. Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced such legislation in March 2018, in the 115th U.S. Congress; and Dianne Feinstein introduced such legislation in February 2019, in the 116th U.S. Congress. The House version of her legislation was introduced by Rep. Salud Carbajal and re-introduced on 14 February 2019, one year after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Arming teachers is equipping teachers in preschool through secondary school with firearms with the intent to prevent casualties from school shootings. Such proposals have engendered public debate regarding with whom the responsibility for providing a safe environment lies, and whether it would reduce or escalate the risk of shootings. School shootings, and proposals to arm teachers, are most common in the United States, but proposals have also been made in countries such as Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Thailand.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a United States federal law, passed during the 117th United States Congress. It implemented several changes to the mental health system, school safety programs, and gun control laws. Gun control laws in the bill include extended background checks for firearm purchasers under the age of 21, clarification of Federal Firearms License requirements, funding for state red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs, further criminalization of arms trafficking and straw purchases, and partial closure of the boyfriend loophole. It was the first federal gun control legislation enacted in 28 years.
