Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., on Sunday vowed he would "do all I can" to pass legislation to stem gun violence in the seven months left in his term in Washington.
In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Jacobs, a native of Buffalo, New York, — where a race-fueled mass shooting killed 10 Black shoppers — said he dropped out of a re-election campaign after his support vanished when he came out in favor of an assault weapon ban.
"Many of the officials who endorsed me for my re-election, which I think I had a solid path to victory, withdrew their endorsements, many of the committees did as well," he lamented.
"Over the next week, week and a half as things heated up on that, I just felt it would be very divisive for the party to pursue running, and also divisive because I thought there was a high likelihood of groups coming in and that this issue would be the issue of race and it wouldn't be a productive dialogue," he recounted. "It would just be running ads and kind of misinformation on issues. And I really want to be a positive force on this issue, so we can get meaningful change."
Jacobs asserted, "I'm here for seven months" and that "these could be a pivotal seven months for gun control activity and legislation."
"Raising the age for assault weapons ban to age 21 — we passed that this week," he said. "We passed changing the magazine size, another priority I had. I'm also working in a bipartisan way."
He said he also envisions more work on the issue.
"Hopefully next week we'll be introducing legislation on body armor," he said. "The retired Buffalo police officer who was a security guard at the grocery store [in the mass shooting] was not able to take down that shooter because that shooter had military grade body armor. I don't think anybody under the sun should be able to get that."
"I think it's going to be a bipartisan bill," he said, noting he's "hopeful as I continue to watch what's going on in the Senate."
"The Senate is really where the activity is going to be that leads this," he said. "I think there's some real discussions on red flag laws and some other issues… raising the age and some others that could really happen. I'm going to do all I can."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.