Maine Senator introduces new gun control legislation

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Gun violence legislation is a topic dividing members of Congress, but Senator Angus King of Maine was trying to bridge the gap on Thursday by introducing new legislation.

In introducing the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act, or GOSAFE, King said, “What the bill does is limit the most lethal piece of assault weapons which is the high capacity magazines.”

However, he said the act doesn’t change the Second Amendment right to protect yourself — it just puts some guardrails on it.

“What it says is that if you have one of these weapons that uses gas to chamber the bullets and deal with recoil, you have to have a fixed magazine in the gun that can only take 10 bullets. No detachable large-capacity magazines,” said King.

As of Thursday, Dec. 21, there were 627 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023 alone according to the Gun Violence Archive. A recent mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine left 18 people dead, and King pointed out the shooter used weapons that would be banned if this law is passed.

“We understand that the shooter in Lewiston had two high-capacity magazines duck-taped together so that when he was killing those people and wounding those people, he didn’t have to stop and reload,” he said.

The National Rifle Association criticized this bill saying it’s “just like its predecessors in targeting law-abiding gun owners,” but King is moving forward with the hope that the GOSAFE Act can be a step in the right direction to address gun violence in America.

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