Mike Levin: “for the third time in 6 weeks, a gunman has killed a young girl in Detroit. The first time it was a 7-year-old, killed…”

“for the third time in 6 weeks, a gunman has killed a young girl in Detroit. The first time it was a 7-year-old, killed by a man who opened fire on a car full of children. The second time it was a 3-year-old, shot while she was watching television in her room. And just this past Wednesday, an 8-year-old was shot while sleeping at home. The Detroit Police Department has one man in custody, but no one has been formally charged. These are very tragic events. In addition to prosecuting the criminals who commit these horrific crimes, we can do more to prevent them, we should close the gun show loophole so that it is more difficult for criminals to gain access to guns. In 1994, Congress passed the Brady Law, which requires Federal Firearm Licensees to perform criminal background checks on gun buyers. However, a loophole in this law allows unlicensed private gun sellers to sell firearms at gun shows without conducting a background check. In April of last year, Senator Jack Reed introduced the Gun Show Background Check Act which would close this loophole in the law. The Reed bill, which is supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, extends the Brady Bill background check requirement to all sellers of firearms at gun shows. I cosponsored that bill because I believe it is critical that we do all we can to prevent guns from getting into the hands of criminals and terrorists.”