Washington (January 3, 2014) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement today after the Obama administration announced two new executive actions to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, including a new regulation clarifying who is prohibited from possessing guns under federal law for mental health reasons and a regulation that would support greater sharing of information about mentally ill people between states and the federal background check system.

 

“I commend President Obama and his administration for taking action to keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill. In the wake of too many recent mass shootings involving perpetrators with mental health problems, we need to redouble our efforts this year to enact commonsense gun safety laws. Congress needs to once again take up legislation to establish universal background checks for all firearms sales, reinstitute the ban on assault weapons, make gun trafficking a federal crime, and close the loopholes surrounding the creation of undetectable, plastic guns.”

 

In 1994, then-Rep. Markey was successful in his bipartisan effort to get President Bill Clinton to place an emergency moratorium on the importation of military style assault weapons from China, including the AK-47 and Uzi.  At the time, it was estimated that between 425,000 and two million modified rifles had been imported into the United States since 1991, selling for less than $130 per gun.