Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) – Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown will be among other fellow elected leaders and gun safety advocates at the White House Monday for the formal signing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
"The signing of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a milestone in our country's efforts to enact common sense gun violence solutions. In the wake of the Jefferson Avenue Tops Market mass shooting, which took the lives of 10 innocent residents, injured three others, and traumatized the East Buffalo community, this bill signing takes on an even greater significance for my administration and the City of Buffalo," Mayor Brown said Sunday afternoon before departing for Washington.
"It will be a great honor to join President Biden for the signing, and I hope it will be the first of many more federal efforts to reduce our country's gun violence epidemic," Mayor Brown added.
The new act will be the first major federal gun safety law in almost 26 years. The law will require an enhanced background checks for people who buy guns under the age of 21. It will also provide federal funding to apply state red flag laws, help disarm domestic abusers, and fund mental health and community violence intervention programs.
"It is an important step forward," said Brown. "I would have liked to have seen more done," Brown added. "The use of weapons of war needs to be stopped….we need to look again at a ban on assault weapons."
Mayor Brown will be joined by Jerome Bridges, a Tops Market employee, who was working at the supermarket when the deadly attack unfolded.
Bridges took quick actions saving the lives of several co-workers by barricading them in a breakroom. Mayor Brown gifted Bridges a gold Buffalo pin to wear during the trip, which includes the bill signing and lunch with the president.
Later this month, Mayor Brown will return to the nation's capitol to testify before Congress on the economic impacts of the May 14 mass shooting.
