Five Common-Sense Gun Safety Steps That Congress Simply Must Take

Op-Ed by Congresswoman Diana DeGette

When is "enough" really going to be enough? With each mass shooting, we grieve, console the families, commend the heroes, condemn the killers and say, "Enough." And then … nothing happens.

Or rather, our efforts in Congress to advance sensible gun safety reform get sidelined by moneyed interests hiding behind the Second Amendment. I've been engaged in this struggle for a long time, and have seen it up close and quite personal.

This isn't a dispute over the Constitution. It's flesh and blood, literally. It's about sickening damage wreaked on people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, injuries often found on a battlefield but never expected at a school or a clinic or a country music festival — until now.

In the wake of the madness in Las Vegas this week, the American College of Physicians called mass shootings a "serious public health issue that needs to be addressed immediately by Congress." I could not agree more. We must do everything within our power to avoid one more such attack, or any type of incident involving firearms that harms the innocent.

I believe there are five things this Congress can do now to help restore sanity to our gun laws and stop the mentally ill and criminals from obtaining weapons.

· Pass new legislation that I'm sponsoring, the Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act, to ban bump stocks and other devices that increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. The simple measures created through this bill could dramatically improve gun safety.

· Reinstate the assault weapons ban, a move I've supported in every Congress since it expired in 2004. Too many Americans are dying at the hands of these military-grade weapons being operated by civilians.

· Ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices that can let shooters fire multiple rounds without stopping to reload.

· Pass the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act, which would improve the background check system and close the gun show loophole. There doesn't have to be a compromise between safety and Second Amendment rights; employing this safeguard is a good example.

· Ban online ammunition purchases and require reporting for large ammunition purchases. The perpetrator of the 2012 Aurora theater shooting not far from my home bought ammunition online, further showing the need for these reforms.

As a lawyer, legislator and long-time public servant, I respect the rights that collectors, hunters, sportsmen and others have under the Second Amendment. Common-sense gun safety legislation lets Americans preserve those rights while at the same time stopping the senseless slaughter of innocent people