Christine Hunschofsky heads to D.C. for White House meeting on gun violence

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 11/19/24-Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, speaks during Organizational Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Democratic state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky will be in Washington, D.C., Thursday for a meeting between White House officials and state lawmakers on federal- and state-level efforts to reduce gun violence.

The trip is part of an ongoing effort by Legislators for Safer Communities, which Hunschofsky co-chairs, to champion gun safety and violence prevention.

Christyna Thompson, State and Regional Press Secretary for gun safety group Giffords, said it will be a closed-door discussion with leaders from the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

At issue, she said, will be “how progress at the federal level to curb the impacts of gun violence would be continued at the state level.”

Thompson added that the meeting is tentatively the first of “multiple conversations” on how states can continue gun safety efforts “as transfers of power take place in state legislatures and beyond.”

President Joe Biden established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in September 2023 to implement and expand on key executive and legislative action toward that goal.

Vice President Kamala Harris oversees the Office, which longtime Biden gun safety policy adviser Stefanie Feldman leads as Director alongside gun violence prevention advocates Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox, who serve as Deputy Directors.

According to the White House, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention builds on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which among other things extended background checks for under-21 gun purchases, funded state red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs and added penalties for so-called straw purchases and arms trafficking.

Authors of the bill included Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. The first time in 28 years federal lawmakers enacted gun control legislation, the bill passed with unanimous consent in the Senate and by a 230-190 House vote after back-to-back mass shootings in New York and Texas.

Florida lawmakers passed the state’s first gun control measure in years in 2018, shortly after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. At the time, Hunschofsky — then the city’s Mayor — traveled to Washington with other local leaders to lobby the federal government for stricter background checks on gun purchases and other safety measures.

Hunschofsky, whom House Democrats tapped this year to lead them during the 2026-28 term, has made gun safety legislation a priority since winning her House District 96 seat in 2020. She has filed bills to add strictures to the sale, transfer and storage of firearms, strengthen background check requirements, ban so-called “ghost guns” with untraceable plastic parts and make threats of mass shootings or terrorism a second-degree felony.

She co-chairs Legislators for Safer Communities with Delaware Senate Majority Whip Tizzy Lockman, Nevada Assembly Majority Floor Leader Sandra Jauregui and state Reps. Liz Berry of Washington, Keturah Herron of Kentucky and Bob Morgan of Illinois.

All are Democrats.

Florida Politics contacted Hunschofsky and Thompson for more information on Thursday’s meeting and their expectations for the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention after Donald Trump retakes the presidency next month, but did not receive a response by press time.