Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley announced in New York City on Monday that he has a plan to end "the epidemic and sickness of gun violence in the United States."
The former governor of Maryland said that as president, he would repeal 2005's Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects firearms manufacturers and retailers from being sued when crimes have been committed using their products. The law was an example of the "NRA flexing their political muscle to protect special interests," O'Malley said, and he urged manufacturers to do what they can to help curb gun violence. "If you have ways to make your guns safer, you have a duty to do that," he said.
During his time as governor of Maryland, O'Malley banned assault-style weapons and introduced fingerprinting, safety training, and comprehensive background checks for all gun buyers, The Guardian reports. "Our legislature stood up to the threats of the NRA," he said. "We drove down gun violence to 30-year lows over those eight years using commonsense measures." O'Malley added that while "no one piece of legislation will ever do away with gun violence...we can certainly do better than we are now. When we have an epidemic of this scale that is taking so many lives, we have to ask what would we do if it were Ebola — we would act to close the loopholes."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confessionspeed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulderspeed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC paradespeed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
