Gun violence in America doesn’t have to be inevitable.  We can prevent gun violence with thoughtful, data-driven, common-sense policy solutions.

People across our community have shared with me their concerns about the gun violence epidemic in our country, and in our own community.  They are Republicans. They are Democrats.  They are Independents.  They are gun owners.  They are parents.  They are students.  They are teachers.  They are faith leaders.  They are colleagues.  They are friends.  And they are worried.  They are worried about the safety of our neighbors here at home and across the country.  They know that common-sense efforts to reduce gun violence are consistent with our Texas traditions of hunting and fishing and responsible gun ownership.  And they want leaders who will stand up to the corporate gun lobby, to address the root causes of this problem, to understand the public health effects of this epidemic, and to put the safety of our communities first.

Our district has seen too many incidents of gun violence in recent years.  From the Memorial Day shooting on Memorial Drive, to the September 2016 shooting on Weslayan Street, to the September 2019 shooting of Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal.  And, sadly, there are many more acts of gun violence in our community, across our state, and across our country each day.

In Congress, I have worked to support common-sense gun safety legislation and to support efforts to study and understand the root causes of gun violence and the steps we can take to keep our communities safe, including serving as a member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

I voted for the largest federal gun safety legislation in more than 20 years, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law.  But there is much more that must be done.  To that end, in Congress, I have co-sponsored and voted for the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 and the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 to require universal background checks and close the loopholes in our country’s background check systems that enable domestic abusers and convicted felons to buy guns.  I voted to pass the Enhanced Background Checks Act, which would close the Charleston Loophole.  I also co-sponsored and voted for the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019 and the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 as well as the Protecting Our Kids Act, which raises the purchasing age for certain semi-automatic gun weapons from 18 to 21 years old, and the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act.  In the 116th and 117th Congresses, I voted to fund gun violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the first time in decades.

I will continue to fight to keep our children, our families, and our communities safe.