Springfield, VA.—Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for Gun Owners of America, had the following to say concerning the introduction of a bipartisan compromise Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act or VAWA on Wednesday: 

Gun Owners of America is glad to see the removal of much of President Biden’s gun control agenda from the latest proposed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

President Biden needlessly weaponized VAWA to enact his gun control agenda, and gun owners are thankful that this agenda has been tossed to the curb.

Language known as the NICS Denial Notification Act still remains in this VAWA Compromise.  

Should this language be signed into law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) would begin to: 

• work with local law enforcement to launch criminal investigations into each NICS denial—which 9 out of 10 times is a false-positive denial of a law-abiding citizen; and 
• deputize local law enforcement and attorneys to act as agents of the ATF. 

Johnston continued:  

Criminal penalties for trying to buy a gun and deputizing local ATF agents have nothing to do with stopping violence against women and everything to do with penalizing gun ownership.

As the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington DC, GOA will only stand down when all the anti-gun provisions are deleted or the whole bill crashes and burns.

Gun Owners of America is calling on all gun owners to contact the Senate and demand the remaining gun control be struck from the final bill. 

Aidan Johnston, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a grassroots nonprofit representing more than two million gun owners who are dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.