Democratic congressman Mike Thompson hosted a town hall meeting in Vallejo to answer questions about a bill he co-authored on gun violence prevention.
Congressman Thompson, who serves as Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, believes House Resolution 4240, will save lives.
“It would expand background checks to include background checks for all commercial sales of firearms,” he said.”So if you’re at a gun show, an internet sale, a newspaper advertisement – someone that you don’t know – you would have to have a background check.”
He says the bill would also provide reasonable exceptions to background checks for gun transfers between family members.
Though some residents are in support of the congressman’s proposed legislation, they don’t think it’s enough.
Congressman Thompson said he’s taking a realistic approach to tackling gun violence.
“Please don’t minimize the background check expansion as something that’s going small,” he said. “…The background check expansion is going pretty big.”
A group of students from Benicia High School were in the audience and came fully prepared with questions surrounding the legislation.