Tonight, U.S. Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) voted to pass the Protecting Our Kids Act (H.R. 7910), a critical piece of legislation that he cosponsored and that would help reduce gun violence in the United States. According to new CDC data, guns are the number one killer of children in America – more than car accidents or cancer. Over the last two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than police officers in the line of duty and active-duty military combined. 

“Today I voted to save our kids' lives. That should be a basic value we all share in Congress. I have supported over 20 pieces of gun safety legislation since being elected to Congress,” said Congressman Norcross. “The gun lobby has opposed them all because they’d rather protect guns than protect people. Inaction is killing us. Why are we sitting here saying semiautomatic weapons that are designed to rip people apart are more important to us than our friends and neighbors? I voted for today’s gun safety package because it’s the right thing to do for our country. I’ll continue fighting for gun safety until the mass shootings stop.”

The Protecting Our Kids Act makes commonsense steps in the fight against gun violence by:

• Raising the purchasing age for semiautomatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old.
• Cracking down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to get illegal guns off our streets.
• Subjecting ghost gun purchases to background check requirements.
• Strengthening safe storage requirements to protect children from accidental shootings.
• Closing the bump stock loophole to ban these deadly tools from civilian use.
• Outlawing high-capacity magazines, which are designed for killing en masse and have been the accessory of choice in the bloodiest mass shootings.

Congressman Norcross is a longtime champion for gun safety reform. He has a 0% lifetime rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a 100% lifetime rating from Brady: United Against Gun Violence (formerly the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence), a leading gun safety advocacy non-profit.