Press Releases

Today, on the 17th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52) read the names of all thirteen Columbine victims in front of the House of Representatives. The reading was a deviation from Rep. Peters weekly reading of the names of mass shooting victims since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which he has been doing since December.

“It’s been seventeen years since we all focused our attention on the horrifying scenes from the Columbine massacre,” Rep. Peters said. “At the time the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was not even six years old, yet the Columbine shooters were able to exploit loopholes to acquire firearms underage and without background checks. It is infuriating to know that commonsense measures could have prevented this gut wrenching tragedy and so many since it.”

The same loopholes that the Columbine shooters used to acquire their firearms still exist and allow criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill to purchase firearms at gun shows or online without a background check. In an interview with Roll Call published earlier this week, Congressman Peters spoke about his efforts to remind Congress of the human cost of their inaction to curb gun violence in order to compel a vote on bipartisan legislation to close background check loopholes.

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Click here or on the image about to see Rep. Peters read the names of the thirteen Columbine shooting victims.