Originally published in Daily Local News

Michael P. Rellahan

The subject of gun violence, and its prevention, was the topic of a round table discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th, of Easttown at her new district offices in the borough Monday.

Present at the discussion were a number of family members of those killed by guns, and one victim of a gun attack. This meeting came on the heels of Houlahan’s co-sponsoring and voting for two bills that seek to address the gun violence crisis in the United States, both of which passed the House last week.

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act would require background checks on all firearms sales, while the Enhanced Background Checks Act would close the “Charleston loophole” by extending the initial background check review period from three to 10 days.

Some of those attending are members of the advocacy organization Gun Sense of Chester County and have participated in public discussions previously.

According to a press release, those attending the roundtable included Elizabeth and Joe Loeper of West Chester, whose son James “Jamie” Loeper was killed in an accidental shooting during a robbery in Philadelphia in 2004; Starr Cummin Bright of West Marlborough, a women who survived after getting violently shot by a mentally unstable man in 1991; Tiffany Perkins-Nixon, whose son Eric Brown Jr. was shot at the Star Social Club in West Chester in 2018 after a dispute about a basketball game; Dianne Lanham, a retired emergency room trauma nurse at Chester County Hospital who has cared for gunshot victims; Carmen Lobis of Delaware County, whose grandson Ben Wheeler was a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut; and Michelle Roberson of Westtown, whose daughter Bianca Roberson was shot and killed mere weeks after graduating Bayard Rustin High School in Westtown.

“Hearing these traumatic stories today from people in my community was a sobering reminder of the work we still have to do,” said Houlahan in the news release. “Congress must continue to take action to curb gun violence; as your elected Representative, I will continue to fight for these victims and survivors.”

Houlahan was elected in 2018 to represent the newly drawn 6th Congressional District, which combines all of Chester County with a portion of southern Berks County, including the city of Reading.