Senator Murray Joins Colleagues in Introducing Legislation to Protect Communities, Schools from Assault Weapons

ICYMI: Senator Murray Addresses Shootings in Yakima and Across the Nation, Pushes for Stronger Gun Safety Measures – WATCH HERE

(Washington, D.C.) –  This week, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) joined Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and 34 of their Democratic colleagues in reintroducing legislation to regulate assault weapons. The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 would ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and import of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and other high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.

“The most recent string of devastating mass shootings in Yakima and communities across the country is yet another painful reminder of the seriousness of our nation’s gun epidemic. While we made some of the most meaningful progress in decades to address gun violence last year at the federal level with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, I have been clear our work is not done and I am still pushing for more progress,” said Senator Murray. “We need stronger federal gun safety laws—and that includes banning military-grade assault weapons—which have no place on our streets—by passing the Assault Weapons Ban. My heart is with every person affected by these tragedies, and I am committed to doing all I can to stop the violence and save lives.”

Notably, The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 would:

• Ban the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name. Owners may keep existing weapons.
• Ban any assault weapon with the capacity to utilize a magazine that is not a fixed ammunition magazine and has one or more military characteristics including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock. Owners may keep existing weapons.
• Ban magazines and other ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, which allow shooters to quickly fire many rounds without needing to reload. Owners may keep existing magazines.
• Require a background check on any future sale, trade or gifting of an assault weapon permitted by the bill.
• Prohibit the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
• Ban bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates.

Exemptions include:

• The bill exempts by name more than 2,200 guns for hunting, household defense or recreational purposes.
• The bill includes a grandfather clause that exempts all weapons lawfully possessed at the date of enactment.

Senator Murray has long pushed for stronger gun violence prevention legislation and to make progress wherever possible. She was instrumental in passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which includes provisions that close the “boyfriend loophole,” enhance background checks for gun purchasers under the age of 21, prohibit the use of federal education funding to purchase firearms or train in their use, school safety investments, investments in mental health access in schools and telehealth, and incentives for states to pass and administer red flag laws. Senator Murray has also pushed for popular reforms such as universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, extreme risk protection orders, and more. 

In addition, Senator Murray has repeatedly fought to invest federal resources in gun violence prevention research. Notably, in 2020 Murray helped usher in the first federal funding for gun violence prevention research in decades and has successfully fought to sustain that funding every year since.  

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