Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey announced legislation on Wednesday aimed at increasing research into gun violence prevention.
According to Slotkin, the bill would fund research at the CDC to help understand and address the gun violence problem in the U.S.
Slotkin represented a district that included Oxford in 2021 when a school shooting at Oxford High School killed four students and injured seven others – six students and a teacher. She also represents East Lansing, which had a mass shooting in February that killed three students and injured five others.
Markey and Slotkin introduced the legislation on Wednesday afternoon with Dylan Morris and Devin Woodruff, students and Oxford and Michigan State, and other people who have seen the impact of gun violence.
According to the bill, the CDC would get $50 million each fiscal year over the next five years to boost its firearms safety and gun violence prevention research.
“Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among American children, and in Oxford and at MSU, I’ve seen the long-term pain and trauma these tragedies inflict on entire communities,” said Slotkin. “So have Dylan and Devin – the Oxford and MSU students joining us today who have survived both. We, as a society, need to step up and decide to protect our kids so that an entire generation of young Americans isn’t defined by gun violence. The bills I’m introducing today, including one that was written based on the circumstances of the shooting at MSU – are a step towards addressing this epidemic," Slotkin said in a statement.
“I am outraged and horrified by the massacre in Nashville, which took the lives of three innocent children. We cannot keep living this way, and our children cannot keep dying this way,” Markey added in a statement. “From our streets to our schools, it’s clear that Congress hasn’t yet done what it’s going to take to end this fatal crisis. Stopping the spread of our nation’s gun violence epidemic will require acting on the reforms we already know are essential, like an immediate assault weapons ban, while we simultaneously invest more to study the root causes of violence and develop evidence-based solutions."
