Major American Jewish organizations are calling for stricter gun-control laws in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 14 students and three staff members dead.
A spokesperson for the women’s organization Hadassah told JNS that the group supports all three of the legislative proposals under discussion in the aftermath of the shooting.
One is a bill sponsored by U.S. Sens. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to expand criminal background checks on prospective purchasers of guns. A second legislative proposal, supported by many Democrats, is to renew the federal ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004.
In addition, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is calling for legislation that would institute universal background checks, ban individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns and outlaw bump stocks, the device that enabled the Las Vegas shooter last October to upgrade his weapons from semiautomatic to fully automatic.
On Feb. 20, President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to take action to ban bump stocks. He also has indicated that he supports some strengthening of background-check regulations.
Hadassah is urging its members to promote the gun-control proposals at upcoming “Day in the District” sessions, in which its members nationwide meet with Congress members in their local districts.
Nathan Diament, director of the Orthodox Union’s Advocacy Center in Washington, D.C., told JNS that his organization “will likely support” all three of the gun proposals. He said the Orthodox Union “has long supported common-sense measures to reduce gun violence, including banning certain sophisticated assault weapons such as the AR-15 used in [the Parkland] attack.”
by Rafael Medoff
