Sheriff Baxter testified about gun trafficking before House subcommittee

Jacob Linton

[anvplayer video=”5115480″ station=”998131″]

WASHINGTON (WHEC) — Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter testified before Congress about gun trafficking at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The meeting was live-streamed virtually from Washington D.C. You can watch the video at this link.

Congressman Joe Morelle, the chairman of the House Rules Committee’s Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, held the hearing to explore actions that Congress can take to better combat gun trafficking.

During the hearing, titled “Tools to combat gun trafficking and reduce gun violence in our communities,” experts testified about how policy can stop illegal guns from making their way into communities.

Morelle said witnesses discussed the importance of ensuring that ATF has the necessary tools to track and police gun trafficking and critical funding streams for gun violence prevention research. The hearing covered elements of H.R. 4423, the Gun Theft Prevention Act, sponsored by Rep. Morelle.

Sheriff Baxter provided insight to reduce the number of illegal stolen guns on our streets.

Baxter said his testimony centered around responsible commercial firearms management, positive gun ownership, and incentivizing responsible gun ownership—not criminalizing it.

"We’re trying to reduce the illegal stolen firearms that enter the market, if you will, and end up in the streets of Rochester and other communities. So anything we could do to incentivize folks to keep their inventory more secure or individuals to keep their inventory more secure their weapons would reduce the number of firearms entering the streets. And of course, these are legal firearms initially. People what I’m talking about is people owning them legally and they are stolen. So we always will also want to hold those accountable that are stealing these firearms too," said Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter