Amy Schumer just joined the gun control fight.
During a press conference on Monday, the comedian, along with her cousin New York Senator Chuck Schumer, unveiled a new initiative to tackle gun violence. Last month, 59-year-old John Russell Houser allegedly opened fire inside a Louisiana movie theater during a screening of Schumer’s latest film “Trainwreck.” He killed three people, including two women, before killing himself.
“Unless something is done and done soon, dangerous people will continue to get their hands on guns,” Schumer told reporters. “We need a background check system without holes and fatal flaws.”
The three-part legislative plan will seek to limit gun access to the mentally ill and violent criminals by rewarding states that provide thorough background check information while penalizing states that fail to do so. The two also called on Congress to fund greater mental health and substance abuse programs.
Over the weekend, Schumer responded to an open letter from a daughter of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting survivor that urged her to speak out and support gun control legislation. The letter, posted on Medium, asked Schumer to be a “voice for our generation and for women—two groups who make up most of the victims of the gun violence in our country.”
@cdickason11 @sfclem Her name was Mayci, not Marci and I think about her and Jillian everyday. Don’t worry I’m on it. You’ll see.
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) August 1, 2015
“These are my first public comments on the issue of gun violence,” Schumer said on Monday. “But I promise you they will not be my last.”
