After ‘Trainwreck’ shooting, Amy and Charles Schumer join for gun control

Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York joined with his cousin, comedian Amy Schumer, to launch a campaign for gun control.

At a news conference at Sen. Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Monday, Amy Schumer said she agreed to her cousin’s request to launch the campaign, dubbed “Schumer and Schumer, Enough is Enough,” in the wake of a shooting July 23 in Lafayette, Louisiana, during a screening of “Trainwreck.”

“I’m not sure why this man chose this movie to end these two beautiful lives and injure nine others, it’s very personal for me,” said Amy Schumer, who stars in the movie. “Unless something is done and done soon, dangerous people will continue to get their hands on guns.”

John Russell Houser, who killed Jillian Johnson, 33, and Mayci Breaux, 21, and injured nine others, was known for espousing misogyny and anti-Semitism on the Internet and on call-in radio. Schumer’s film has been presented as a feminist comedy. She is Jewish.

Sen. Schumer’s legislation would offer incentives to states to share histories of domestic violence and mental problems with the Justice Department, which administers background checks for gun purchasers. It would also fund mental health care. Houser had a history of domestic violence and had at one point been institutionalized. Houser, who killed himself as police moved in, legally purchased his gun last year.

“It’s often something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Amy Schumer said. “Today’s push makes so much sense because it seeks to address the how.”

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