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Amy Schumer and Her Cousin Chuck Are Taking on Gun Control

Comedian Amy Schumer joined her distant cousin Chuck to take on gun control.

GettyImages-482856762
GettyImages-482856762

Comedian Amy Schumer is all about the laugh. But on Capitol Hill Monday, she joined her distant cousin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, to take on gun control, one of the most serious issues in the mainstream of American politics.

Comedian Amy Schumer is all about the laugh. But on Capitol Hill Monday, she joined her distant cousin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, to take on gun control, one of the most serious issues in the mainstream of American politics.

At a Monday press conference, the comedian and the Democratic New York senator called for stricter gun control, including increased mental health screening and incentives for more thorough background checks. This wasn’t an instance of an entertainer demanding reforms on an issue he or she has no real life connection to; John Oliver has that market cornered with his takedown of FIFA and his critical take on the lack of equal voting rights for Puerto Ricans. At a July 23 screening of her hit movie, Trainwreck, 59-year-old John Russell Houser opened fire, killing 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson. He also injured nine before turning the gun on himself.

“Unless something is done and done soon, dangerous people will continue to get their hands on guns,” Amy Schumer said Monday. “We need a background check system without holes and fatal flaws.”

“These are my first public comments on the issue of gun violence, but I can promise you, they will not be my last,” the star of Inside Amy Schumer added.

With those words, Schumer waded into one of the most divisive issues in American politics. President Barack Obama has called for stricter gun control laws following a series of mass shootings in recent years. But so far, Congress has been unwilling to pass any serious gun control measures.

The plan unveiled Monday takes a three-pronged approach to preventing mass shootings. Schumer — the lawmaker — revealed legislation that would reward states for submitting all the paperwork necessary to conduct background checks on potential gun buyers. It would impose monetary penalties on those who don’t. The Schumers also called on the Justice Department to make recommendations on how states deal with mental health issues.

The press conference comes on the heels of an open letter from Sarah Clements, whose mother was a survivor of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. It’s the deadliest mass shooting at an American high school or grade school in U.S. history.

“You are our generation’s epitome of what it means to be a strong, powerful, self-aware champion for the experiences and truths of being a woman and an American today,” Clements wrote in a July 31 piece.

Schumer responded with this tweet.

Photo credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

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