Victims Memorial seen near the Tops supermarket shooting site in Buffalo, New York, USA, May 16, 2022. REUTERS / Brendan McDermid / File Photo
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June 3 (Reuters) – A Republican congressman who came out in support of gun control after a mass shooting in his area dropped out of his re-election on Friday after being fiercely criticized by Republicans who saw the change in his policy. as betrayal.
Chris Jacobs, the first-time U.S. representative from the Buffalo suburb of New York, said he had decided to step down to avoid an “incredibly divisive election” for the Republican Party.
Jacobs passed a federal ban on assault weapons and other gun control measures a week ago after two massacres. Authorities say a white gunman killed 10 blacks in a supermarket on May 14 in a racially motivated attack, and a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in another attack in Uwalde, Texas, on May 24.
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“It was a very influential event for me,” Jacobs told Buffalo News, referring to the Buffalo shooting.
The reaction was immediate. Weapons groups have posted office numbers and cell phones on the Internet, and local party leaders have begun to garner support, according to the New York Times.
“The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truthful media attack, funded by millions of dollars in special interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and gun violence and gun control,” he said. Jacobs told reporters on Friday after the announcement. his withdrawal.
Jacobs was elected to Congress in New York’s 27th District two years ago with the support of the National Weapons Association, but is now in the redesigned 23rd District.
The Republican candidate will be elected in the primary election on August 23 before the general election on November 8, when a decision will be made for the entire House of Representatives.
Republicans are ready to regain control of the Democrats in the narrowly divided House, as the party that controls the White House traditionally loses seats in Congress in the midterm elections.
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Report by Daniel Trot; Edited by Cynthia Ostermann
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