Jacobs votes with Democrats as House passes gun control bill

The bill would raise the minimum age for purchasing assault rifles from 18 to 21, ban high-capacity magazines and strengthen requirements that gun owners store their weapons safely. The measure passed by a 223 to 204 vote, and Jacobs was one of five Republicans who supported it. The others were Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Of those five, only Fitzpatrick is running for re-election.

In much of the Republican Party, supporting any measure that strengthens gun laws is politically deadly, as Jacobs discovered after announcing on May 27 that he would support an assault weapons ban and other gun safety measures in the wake of the May 14 shooting in Buffalo that claimed 10 lives. Republican leaders in the district where he planned to run immediately began withdrawing their support for Jacobs, and he ended up abandoning his plans to run for re-election Friday.

On that same day, Jacobs told The Buffalo News that he would "absolutely be supporting" the measure that Democrats brought to the floor Wednesday.

"That is going to have the two other things that I talked about: the limit on the magazines ... and raising the age for assault weapons to 21," he said.

Those measures did not exactly prove to be popular among most Republican lawmakers, who said the recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, should not prompt knee-jerk legislation limiting gun rights.

“These shootings are a tragic symptom of a far more systemic deterioration of our society and institutions," said Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Utica-area Republican who is running for re-election in a new district that stretches from rural Niagara County to the Watertown area. "Infringing further on the constitutional rights and due process of law-abiding Americans is not the answer, and it will not solve the problem.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, who represents the North Country and serves as the third-ranking Republican in the House, agreed.

“I am proud to stand up for the Second Amendment rights of Upstate New York and the North Country against this legislation that shreds the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans with no effect on deterring criminals who do not follow the law when obtaining firearms," said Stefanik, who has been pushing Buffalo businessman Carl P. Paladino as a potential replacement candidate for the Southern Tier seat Jacobs had been running to represent.

Those comments came later on the same day that witnesses from Buffalo and Uvalde – including Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia and Zeneta Everhart, whose son was wounded in the Tops market shooting – called for stronger gun control measures while testifying before a House committee.

Only two Democrats – Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon – opposed the party's gun control measure.

The bill was largely a symbolic one, since such aggressive gun control measures are doomed by Republican opposition in the Senate, which is divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans and where 60 votes are required for any bill to move forward. There, a bipartisan group of senators continues to negotiate a gun safety package that's expected to possibly include stronger background checks for gun purchasers.

But Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, echoed the comments of many of his Democratic colleagues, saying stronger legislation is needed.

“Ten innocent lives were taken at a grocery store in Buffalo by an 18-year-old motivated by hate, racism and conspiracy who had the ability to purchase a weapon of war,” Higgins said. “This legislation takes long-overdue action on common sense gun reform, widely supported by the American people, on the federal level, to keep weapons out of the hands of those who are perpetuating gun violence in communities across the nation.”