‘It’s uncomfortable, it’s disturbing”: New bill aimed at preventing gun violence introduced by Florida Congressmen at Parkland press conference

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Today marks six years since 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Florida representatives Maxwell Frost and Jared Moskowitz, along with Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Mike Thompson (D-California), held a news conference to introduce new legislation in hopes of preventing gun violence.

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The bill, called the “Identify Gun Stores Act,” would prevent states from prohibiting credit card companies from implementing the “merchant category code,” which could track suspicious guns and ammunition purchases.

Congressman Frost said the merchant category code would have also prevented the Pulse nightclub killings by flagging the shooter’s purchases leading up to the shooting.

Frost noted some families of victims of the Parkland shooting have “used technology to create voice messages from their dead children” and they will be sent to Congress today and in the months to come.

“It’s uncomfortable, it’s disturbing,” said Frost. “But what’s more uncomfortable and disturbing is the fact that their kids died in a pool of their own blood on the floor of their school.”

Congressman Moskowitz said what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was an indictment on elected officials who “had allowed what happened at Douglas to happen by not dealing with the fact that mentally ill people can have access to weapons.”

“Why do we need these mass events to get our attention?” Moskowitz asked. “There are bipartisan things we can do here if this congress can just figure out how to function.”

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