By Wendy Leigh

wleigh@whidbeynewsgroup.com

In a unanimous vote at the Langley City Council meeting on Monday evening, Aug. 19, the council members agreed to approve Mayor Tim Callison’s signature on a letter supporting bipartisan gun legislation in the U.S. Congress. The letter is a collaborative effort by the United States Conference of Mayors, with at least 300 city mayors joining in the effort to date.

The letter is addressed to both Republican and Democratic majority and minority leaders of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell and Chuck E. Schumer, respectively. Noting the recent tragic events in El Paso and Dayton, the mayors stress that America can no longer wait to take action that prevents firearms purchases by those who should not have them.

The mayors urge Congress to immediately pass bipartisan background-check legislation that has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives in February of this year. These bills include H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Check of 2019, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Backgrounds Checks Act of 2019.

The United States Conference of Mayors letter will now be signed by Langley Mayor Callison.

“Passage of these bills is a critical step to reducing gun violence in our country,” it states, urging the Senate to immediately “take up and pass these bills to reduce gun violence and the terrible toll it takes in our cities and our nation.”