WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park on Friday made a surprising about-face on gun control issues, becoming perhaps the first congressional Republican to call for an assault weapons ban in the wake of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas.
At a news conference in Lancaster and in a later interview with The Buffalo News, Jacobs – who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2020 – laid out a series of new stances that run contrary to the Republican party line on guns. In addition to saying he would vote for a Democratic bill banning assault weapons, he also said he would back raising the age on some gun purchases to 21, limiting the capacity of magazines and banning the sale of military-style body armor to civilians.
In the interview, Jacobs said the two recent shootings forced him to reevaluate his position on guns and to research where he wanted to stand in the future.
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"I hope I've been compassionate when I read and heard about previous incidents like this that have happened over the years, but I guess there's just something markedly different when it happens in your city, to people you know," said Jacobs, who launched his political career as a longtime member of the Buffalo Board of Education. "This has been a profoundly impactful event for me."
Then came the shooting in Uvalde, which claimed the lives of 19 fourth-graders and two teachers. Jacobs – the father of two young girls – said that massacre touched him personally, too.
"Being a father and having young children and visualizing what those parents are going through and, I guess, being able to feel it more personally certainly has had an impact as well," Jacobs said.
"With the nation reeling from the slaughter of 19 fourth-graders and two teachers in Texas only 10 days after a racist massacre claimed 10 lives in Buffalo, the U.S. Senate seems poised this week to do what it often does: Nothing. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court may be poised to make it even easier for Americans to carry guns," writes Jerry Zremski.
Those comments come as the vast majority of elected Republicans continue to reject any additional gun control measures, instead insisting that increased access to mental health care and increased security at schools will better protect Americans from mass shooters. In fact, Jacobs revealed his new stance after a news conference with Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who on Thursday told The Buffalo News editorial board that he opposes an assault weapons ban and raising the gun-purchasing age to 21.
Jacobs, though, was firm in supporting both of those measures.
"If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it," he said at the news conference, referring to the kind of semiautomatic weapon used by the killers in Buffalo, Uvalde and many other mass shootings. "So I want to be clear: I would vote for it."
Later at the news conference, he added: "Individuals cannot buy beer, they cannot get cigarettes until 21. I think it's perfectly reasonable that the age limit at least for these highly lethal, high- capacity semiautomatic weapons should be 21."
In the interview, Jacobs said that while he supports a bill banning the future sale of semiautomatic weapons, he would not support confiscation of such guns from those who already own them.
He also said he studied what happened when Congress banned semiautomatic weapons between 1994 and 2004. Jacobs said the number of mass shootings did not go down during that period, but that fatalities from such incidents did.
Jacobs said that proves to him that there should be a nationwide limit on the number of rounds in a gun's magazine.
"I think it's reasonable to say: does a civilian need more than a 10 round magazine in their in their guns?" Jacobs said. "And I think that that's the type of thing where you really need a national policy because otherwise, you know, (higher-capacity) magazines are going to be floating around from state to state."
On top of all that, Jacobs said he plans to craft legislation that would bar civilians from buying the kind of body armor that the shooting suspect in Buffalo is said to have worn throughout his attack on Black shoppers at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue. He said he wants to name that legislation after Aaron Salter, the Tops security guard who was killed in the mass shooting.
"I just can't think for the life of me why a civilian who's not in the law enforcement sector or security should have the right to obtain that kind of body armor," Jacobs said.
If the suspect in the Buffalo shooting had not been wearing body armor, "I think Mr. Salter, being a retired police officer and security guard, would have been able to stop him, and far fewer people, including himself, would have perished."
First elected in 2020, Jacobs currently represents one of the most conservative congressional districts in the state – and he won, in part, by touting his support for gun rights.
“It is truly an honor to be the only candidate to receive the endorsement of the NRA for NY-27," Jacobs said in a statement two years ago. "I have always stood with law-abiding gun owners. I promise to uphold this commitment to protecting our rights, and Western New York gun owners can rest assured they have an ally and a fighter for them in Congress with me.”
Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a domestic terrorism bill that Democrats pushed in reaction to the Tops Markets massacre in Buffalo, refusing to begin debate on the measure as well as several likely amendments focused on gun control.
Given that Jacobs said that, his turnabout on Friday came as a shock to longtime Western New York gun rights advocate Harold E. "Budd" Schroeder.
Told of all of Jacobs' gun safety proposals, Schroeder said: "Chris Jacobs wants to do all that? ... I am very surprised and disappointed."
Jacobs is now running for re-election in a redrawn 23rd district, which combines Buffalo's eastern and southern suburbs with several Southern Tier counties. Like the district Jacobs currently represents, it's a very conservative district – one that the 2020 Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, won by 17.2 percentage points.
Manhattan businessman Marc Cenedella, a Fredonia native, announced last week that he plans to challenge Jacobs in the Aug. 23 Republican primary.
Cenedella did not return a phone call seeking comment, but Jacobs acknowledged that his turnabout on the gun issue could cause political problems for him.
"I want to just be transparent in terms of where my head is at right now on these issues," Jacobs said. "And I'm pursuing a new district, and I think it's fair to the voters of the district to know where I would be on on these important issues."