GIFFORDS responds to Senate attack on gun safety

WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, today released a statement after the Senate passed President Trump’s partisan “Big, Beautiful Bill” with only Republican votes. The bill includes a radical provision that will make it easier for dangerous people to acquire gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns.

For nearly a century, these particularly dangerous weapons have been regulated through the National Firearms Act (NFA), which requires a thorough background check, tax and registration. By eliminating the tax, Republicans say they are attempting to gut the NFA’s safeguards that have kept silencers and short-barreled firearms from falling into the wrong hands.

“For 100 years, Republicans and Democrats agreed on commonsense safeguards to keep silencers and short-barreled firearms from falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, President Trump and today’s extreme Republicans put gun lobby CEO donors ahead of Americans’ safety and passed a bill that will make it easier for dangerous people to get these weapons,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “The gun lobby freely admits this is the first step in their plan to remove all safeguards keeping gun silencers away from criminals. Passing this bill endangers law enforcement and the communities they risk their lives to protect—and Republicans know it.”

Until now, silencers and short-barreled firearms other than handguns have rarely been used in crimes because current law has successfully stopped them from falling into the wrong hands. Because of these protections, the shooters in the 2022 Tops Friendly Market massacre in Buffalo, New York, and the 2023 shooting in Lewiston, Maine, were unable to access silencers. A silencer was used in a 2019 Virginia Beach mass shooting that killed 12 innocent people, slowing law enforcement and the crowd’s ability to react to gunfire. This provision could ultimately make it easier for violent criminals to escape or secretly bring dangerous guns into crowded areas, putting both law enforcement and civilians at greater risk.