Senate Judiciary Committee to Hold Hearing on Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Subcommittee on The Constitution, today announced that on Tuesday, March 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled “Constitutional and Common Sense Steps to Reduce Gun Violence” at 10:00 AM ET in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.  This will be the first of a series of hearings to examine proposals to reduce gun violence.  The hearings will consider public health, law enforcement, and community-based approaches aimed at saving lives and making communities safer.  After the March 23 hearing before the full Committee, Chair Blumenthal will hold a series of Subcommittee hearings to further explore specific reforms that are both constitutional and common sense.  

“In 2016, the American Medical Association declared that gun violence in America is a public health crisis.  And that crisis continues,” Durbin said.  “While the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the nation in 2020, gun violence did too.  According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 43,533 deaths by gunfire in 2020, including 298 deaths of children under the age of 11.  Americans from across the ideological spectrum can agree that the number of gun deaths in America is too high and that we should take steps to reduce it. With that goal in mind, the Senate Judiciary Committee will pursue approaches that comply with the Constitution and that will help bring the number of gun deaths down.” 

“My home state of Connecticut has been a leader in the fight against gun violence – but states like ours with the strongest gun laws are still at the mercy of the ones with the weakest, because guns have no respect for state boundaries.  That’s why we need federal solutions to stem the tide of gun violence – and that’s why the Senate Judiciary Committee is making this issue one of its top priorities this Congress,” Blumenthal said.  “Next week will kick off a series of hearings exploring the many ways that gun violence has touched the lives of Americans in almost every community in our country.  We’ll be looking into constitutional, common sense solutions to address domestic violence, safe storage, immunity for gun manufacturers, and more.  I am grateful to Chair Durbin for his decades of leadership on this public health crisis and proud to be his partner in this effort.”

-30-