Nearly two weeks after a gunman opened fire during a screening of one of her movies, killing two people and himself, actress and comedienne Amy Schumer is teaming up with her cousin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as he unveils new legislation to combat gun violence.
The proposed legislation, which the two presented at a news conference Monday, would reward states that submit information to the background-check system and penalize states that don’t comply.
During a July screening of Amy Schumer’s film “Trainwreck” at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, John Houser shot 11 people, killing two women before eventually turning the gun on himself. He legally purchased the gun he used at a pawn shop.
The new push for gun control in Congress also comes after the FBI reported that a breakdown in the system made it possible for Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to purchase a gun.
“These shootings have got to stop. I don’t know how else to say it,” Amy Schumer said at the press conference Monday, who refused to say the name of the gunman during her remarks.
After the shooting in Lafayette, gun-control advocate Sarah Clements called on the actress to take a stand on the issue in an open letter, writing, “We need your voice in this movement.”
“Your movie … will now forever have this shooting attached to it. You’ve been caught in the middle of our country’s terrifying, unending war with itself, our sick and twisted relationship with the gun lobby, which tells us we need guns for anyone, anywhere, anytime. … Join our movement.”
Schumer tweeted that she thinks every day about Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, the two women killed in the shooting, writing: “Don’t worry I’m on it. You’ll see.”