WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) on June 16 led eight of her House colleagues in the New York Delegation in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), requesting that the Senate include the full gun trafficking prevention language from the House-passed Protecting Our Kids Act in the Senate’s legislative package on gun reform. This language includes the bulk of Congresswoman Maloney’s Gun Trafficking and Crime Prevention Act, which would help combat gun trafficking and straw purchases and take on the “Iron Pipeline” that has facilitated the flow of countless illegal guns into New York City.

The letter states, “As you work to finalize the Senate gun safety bill package, we strongly urge you to fully retain legislative text that would act to crack down on gun trafficking and straw purchasers. This issue that has plagued the country by feeding communities with weapons of war for years and facilitating a secondary market of person to person arms sales. In our home state of New York, the illegal interstate movement of firearms into New York City – known as the ‘Iron Pipeline’ – has caused countless firearms to enter communities unlawfully.”

They continued, “The country is at a gun violence crossroads, and we have a duty as elected leaders to respond to this public health epidemic that gun trafficking and straw purchasers fuel, in a meaningful way. Preserving Title II of the Protecting Our Kids Act in the final Senate gun safety package would do just that, by helping us break the Iron Pipeline that has shattered so many families and communities.”

Full text of the letter can be found below:

Dear Senate Colleagues,

We write to thank you for your openness to engaging in bipartisan efforts to ensure that our nation’s communities and families are protected from gun violence. We look forward to seeing the results of the bipartisan group of Senators’ work on legislation to combat the gun violence epidemic. Gun violence inflicts pain across our nation, and the mass shooting tragedies in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and other towns prove that this effort should transcend borders.

As you work to finalize the Senate gun safety bill package, we strongly urge you to fully retain Title II of the Protecting Our Kids Act, legislative text that would act to crack down on gun trafficking and straw purchasers. This issue that has plagued the country by feeding communities with weapons of war for years, and facilitating a secondary market of person to person arms sales. In our home state of New York, the illegal interstate movement of firearms into New York City – known as the “Iron Pipeline” – has caused countless firearms to enter communities unlawfully. According to a report by the New York Attorney General’s office, as many as 60% of these weapons recovered in the city came through the pipeline and in most instances, straw purchasers buy weapons in states with lax gun laws.

An analysis by the NY State Office of the Attorney General found that between 2010-2015, state law enforcement recovered 46,514 guns used in connection with a crime. Among these, 34,344 guns were traced to a source state outside of New York – well above the national average. Almost half of these guns originated in six states known to have weak gun laws. On a national level, Brady United Against Gun Violence found that 90 percent of guns used in crimes can be traced to just 5 percent of gun dealers.

The country is at a gun violence crossroads, and we have a duty as elected leaders to respond to this public health epidemic that gun trafficking and straw purchasers fuel, in a meaningful way. Preserving Title II of the Protecting Our Kids Act in the final Senate gun safety package would do just that, by helping us break the Iron Pipeline that has shattered so many families and communities.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12)

Jamaal Bowman ED. D. (NY-16)

Yvette D. Clarke (NY-9)

Adriano Espaillat (NY-13)

Brian Higgins (NY-26)

Mondaire Jones (NY-17)

Grace Meng (NY-6)

Ritchie Torres (NY-15)

Nydia Velazquez (NY-7)