Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is calling for more gun restrictions with a proposed bill that seeks to restrict semi-automatic weapons and gun modifications.
The Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act would establish a list of prohibited firearms and limit the capacity of detachable magazines to 10 rounds. It would also prohibit "ghost guns," which are bought in separate pieces online and then assembled at home. These weapons are typically untraceable to law enforcement because they do not have a serial number.
Kelly says that this will keep Americans safe from the deadliest weapons, while still maintaining the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
The legislation focuses on gun modifications like high-capacity magazines, which allow users to load and carry more bullets at a time. The Giffords Law Center says high-capacity magazines have been used in all years of the deadliest mass shootings in the last 10 years.
Kelly says more lives could have been saved if the shooter who seriously injured his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, in a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson had not been able to purchase the modification.
“Let me start by saying that I’m a gun owner, and I’m a combat veteran. But also this issue is very personal to me. My wife, Gabby Giffords, was shot and nearly killed about a dozen years ago while meeting with her constituents at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona," Kelly said in a statement. "I’m one of the unfortunate individuals in our country who is a spouse or a parent who has to receive that phone call to say—in my case—that my wife’s been shot."
The bill is co-sponsored by Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Michael Bennet (D-CO).