FOX 40: ‘We need Congress to act’: Sen. Alex Padilla calls for ban on large-capacity magazines
By Jacque Porter
United States Senator Alex Padilla spoke with Inside California Politics on what he says is an epidemic of gun violence in the United States and on the recent nomination of a former member of the Newsom administration to President Joe Biden’s cabinet.
Padilla said he believes that the U.S.’s assault weapons ban, which lasted one decade and ended in 2004, was effective at reducing the number of mass shootings, and he advocates for a return to that policy.
“…[A]s long as we don’t have a consistent national ban across the country there’s going to continue to be vulnerabilities, there’s going to continue to be loopholes,” Padilla said.
On Tuesday, Biden visited Monterrey Park, Calif., where a gunman killed 11 people earlier this year, and announced he would sign an executive order to ensure federal agencies comply with existing gun control laws.
Padilla says Congress needs to do more to combat gun violence.
“As much as these executive orders are going to do… we need Congress to act to ban large capacity magazines,” Padilla said. “We know these solutions work. We don’t need a state-by-state piecemeal approach.”
Padilla also voiced his support for the former head of California’s Labor Department, Julie Su, to join Biden’s cabinet.
Biden nominated Su, who currently serves as U.S. Deputy Labor Secretary, earlier this month to replace Marty Walsh as the U.S. Labor Secretary.
Su’s nomination to the government’s top labor position has garnered pushback from Republicans and business groups.
“Her broad experience, her years of experience, her knowledge of labor law, and her advocacy for workers, I think, couldn’t come at a better time for our nation’s workers given the state of our economy,” Padilla said.
Read the full article here.