Quigley Calls for Conversation on Gun Control

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) released the following statement, encouraging his colleagues in Congress to open a dialog and find the common ground on gun policy:

"Six people were shot inside of fifteen minutes in Chicago last night. Seven more victims were killed last weekend, with dozens more injured by gunfire. In the hours following the horrific tragedy in Colorado, we paused to reflect and sent our prayers to families grieving an unimaginable loss.

"But now it is time to talk about commonsense gun control, despite the NRA who say that doing so would be exploiting the situation. If we can't talk about guns following a tragedy, we wouldn't have been able to talk after Tucson or Fort Hood or Virginia Tech or sadly, any weekend in Chicago.

"We have to talk about how to keep dangerous weapons out of dangerous hands. We have to talk about the gun show loophole. We have to talk about the recent Supreme Court ruling which determined the Second Amendment is not an unlimited right. We have to acknowledge that a high-capacity magazine is not necessary to defend one's home or used to hunt anything but people. We can't let the extremists silence the debate, or there will be no end to senseless shootings.

"It's time to start this conversation and stop the violence."

Rep. Quigley, now in his second term in Congress, has a long history of pushing for commonsense gun control reforms and has specifically called for closing the gun show loophole. In this Congress, he has introduced the Border Security Enhancement Act and the Trafficking Reduction and Criminal Enforcement (TRACE) Act, both of which would provide the ATF with the resources it needs to effectively combat illegal gun flow in America. Quigley also spearheaded the effort to file a "friend of the court" amicus brief, urging the Supreme Court to allow Chicago's handgun ban to stand.