“This past weekend, we saw that the need to act against political violence is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of public safety and common sense,” Frost wrote. “That’s why [Representative Lucy McBath] and I are calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring a vote on legislation that would ban assault weapons and protect the safety of every American.”
The full letter urged Johnson to bring H.R. 698, Assault Weapons Ban, and H.R. 8600, McBath’s bill that would ban gas-powered firearms like the one used by Trump’s assailant, to a vote. The Assault Weapons Ban was originally introduced in February 2023, and its primary sponsorship was taken over by McBath that June.
“What we saw on July 14, 2024, is that the need to act against political violence is not a partisan issue, it is a matter of public safety and common sense,” Frost and McBath wrote in the letter. “It should not take the attempted assassination of a former President for the Speaker of the House to act. A failure to respond in the face of a brazen attack almost certainly invites a future tragedy.”
