The toll that gun violence takes on Americans is an escalating crisis. According to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, in the one and a half years since 20 first graders and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, 74 school shootings have occurred and nearly 50,000 Americans have been killed by guns.

While Connecticut legislators bravely worked in a bipartisan fashion last spring to strengthen laws that will make our state safer, we should only rest when the same types of safeguards become federal law.

This week Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced an important new bill in Congress. It honors an Oxford resident who was shot and killed by her violent husband after she received a temporary restraining order. Because the law allowed him to possess a gun before the order became permanent, this dangerous person was able to kill his wife with a legal weapon!

The Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act will compel domestic abusers who are subject to temporary restraining orders to temporarily surrender firearms.