Rep. Chris Jacobs, a New York Republican said he would support banning assault weapons after the two recent mass shootings in Buffalo N.Y and Uvalde, Texas.
“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” Jacobs said at a news conference on Friday. “So I want to be clear: I would vote for it.”
Although he would support banning the sale of assault weapons, he does not support taking them away from people that already own the weapons.
Jacobs told Buffalo News in an interview that he would also support raising the age on some gun purchases to 21, limiting the capacity of magazines and plans to introduce a bill banning the sale of military-style body armor to civilians.
“Individuals cannot buy beer, they cannot get cigarettes until 21. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the age limit at least for these highly lethal, high- capacity semiautomatic weapons should be 21,” he said.
Jacobs represents New York’s 27th Congressional District, which contains suburbs outside Buffalo. But, redistricting eliminated his district and he is currently running in the 23rd congressional district which combines the eastern and southern suburbs of Buffalo.
Jacobs, who was endorsed by the NRA in 2020, said he reconsidered his position on gun control after the two recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde that left more than two dozen people dead in total.
“I hope I’ve been compassionate when I read and heard about previous incidents like this that have happened over the years, but I guess there’s just something markedly different when it happens in your city, to people you know. This has been a profoundly impactful event for me,” he said of the shooting in Buffalo.
The shooting in Uvalde that claimed the lives of 21 people including 19 children hits close to home for Jacobs who is the father of two girls.
“Being a father and having young children and visualizing what those parents are going through and, I guess, being able to feel it more personally certainly has had an impact as well,” Jacobs told Buffalo News.
He is running for reelection in a very conservative district and is aware that he could lose his seat in Congress, but he wants to be “fair” to the voters in his new district because they deserve to know “where I would be on these important issues.”
