Funny girl Amy Schumer is getting serious about gun control after a theater shooting that took place during a screening of her film "Trainwreck" that killed two and injured nine in Lafayette, Louisiana this past summer. A drastic turn from her role as a stand-up comedian, she is now teaming up with her cousin, Senator Chuck Schumer, as he pushes new legislation to help stop gun violence.
“I’m not sure why this man chose my movie to end those two lives but it was personal for me,” Schumer said in August. “We always find out how the shooter got their gun, and it’s always something that should have never happened in the first place.”
Schumer now feels a personal connection to the gun control discussion as the man responsible for this tragic shooting obtained his weapon legally, from a pawnshop. Senator Schumer has proposed new legislation that would reward states for submitting information to the background-check system and penalize states that do not comply.
This legislation aims to stop abusers and those with mental illness from purchasing guns by expanding background checks and ending the allowance for gun purchase through gun shows and online, both which lack an initial background check. Not only was it discovered that the Lafayette theater shooter purchased his firearm legally, but he was also discovered to have suffered from mental illness.
Senator Chuck Schumer is proposing a straightforward three-point policy: “Close Background Check Loopholes,” “Make Background Checks Better” and “Shut Down the Illegal Gun Pipeline.” Amy tweeted her support for the crackdown on gun violence and for her cousin: “Please join me and @SenSchumer in ending gun violence and tweet the hashtag #aimingforchange RT we can do this.”
This October, Schumer and Senator Chuck appeared together in Manhattan, outside City Hall to help spread their ideas on gun law reform. Schumer, a person very much in the public eye, asked supporters to help spread their message by way of social media, hoping that by just talking about the issue at hand, it will lower gun violence.
Amy shared her personal opinion on the issue in New York: ”If there is anything that the mass shootings in Lafayette, Chattanooga, Charleston, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Sandy Hook and so many other places have taught us, it’s that we should be doing everything in our power to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of hateful evil-doers and the mentally ill.”
Amy felt a need to get involved in this important and heated discussion after how personal this event felt for her. She is now offering her voice in the movement to push for a crackdown on gun violence -- using her comedy fame to spread this message, in accordance with her cousin and New York Senator.
Most recently, Amy dedicated her anticipated HBO special, “Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo,” to Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, the victims of the Lafayette shooting.
