WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) released the following statement on the two-year anniversary of the Tucson shooting, in which 18 people, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8), were shot:

“Two years ago today, I was shocked and horrified to learn that my colleague Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other people were gunned down in a grocery store parking lot. I could have never imagined that we would be so rocked by gun violence less than two years later, even closer to home. The victims of the Newtown and Tucson massacres and the thousands of other innocents who die every year as a result of gun violence deserve a commitment from us to do everything in our power to reduce this threat. It’s time our laws caught up to what we know about preventing gun violence—innocent people can be saved by laws that implement the commonsense ideas that no one outside of law enforcement needs an assault rifle and it doesn’t take 30 bullets to kill a deer. As we begin a new Congress in a new year, we must rededicate ourselves to implementing fair protections that do more to keep weapons of mass killing off America’s streets.”