GOP’s Jacobs doubles down on controls for high-powered guns

CLARENCE, N.Y. (AP) — After back-to-back mass shootings last spring, including one that killed 10 people at a supermarket not far from his suburban Buffalo home, Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs made a decision.

If an assault weapons ban came to the House floor, he would support it, he told voters in his conservative congressional district.

“I could have said nothing,” said Jacobs. Silence would have allowed him to cruise through the Republican primary. But after 31 deaths in 10 days, including the slaying of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas, he felt he had an obligation to take a public stance.

“Having two young children, it just really — you have a different perspective when, you know, thinking about going home to your kids when those 19 children perished,” Jacobs said.

A week later came another decision. With Republicans withdrawing their support for him in droves, Jacobs announced he would not seek reelection.

The expiration of his career is another sign of the polarization that is ever-growing in a Congress where, as Jacobs said, “If you stray from a party position, you are annihilated.”

“There’s a lot of single-issue voters in the Republican Party on this issue, and on the other side, abortion,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“The idea of big tents for parties, I think, is very important. And right now it’s very strident both ways, and I just don’t think that’s good,” he said. “The polarized nature is why you see a lot of frustrated members of Congress and not enough is getting done.”

But if there is regret for the decision that abruptly halted his political career, it doesn’t show. On his way out of Congress, the Republican serving his first full term has doubled down on his support for the regulation of certain high-powered firearms, proposing a licensing regimen for people who want to buy them.

“Ninety-nine percent of people are very responsible gun owners. Unfortunately, saying it’s only 1% (who are not) gives no solace to someone who lost somebody senselessly in Buffalo or in one of these mass shootings,” Jacobs said.

His Federal Assault Weapons Licensing Act would require people to take a safety course, pass an FBI background check and submit fingerprints before buying a “semi-automatic assault weapon.” There are exemptions, including for current owners, active duty military and law enforcement officers.

The steps would be similar to those required for the thousands of pistol permits Jacobs issued during five years as Erie County clerk, a process he considers a reasonable balance between Second Amendment protections and responsible ownership.

Many of Jacobs’ former supporters see his position as a betrayal.

“It’s just not really tolerable,” said the state’s Conservative Party chair, Gerard Kassar.

“In terms of single issues, the Second Amendment in parts of upstate New York … is a very, very significant single issue and represents more than just the issue of guns,” Kassar said. “It represents the issue of freedom, represents an issue of constitutionalists. It represents the position of libertarians.”

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Jacobs had…