NEW YORK (AP) — Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs announced Friday that he will not run for another term in Congress amid backlash over his support for new gun control measures.
Jacobs told reporters he has decided to retire instead of facing what he said would be “an incredibly divisive election.” His announcement came just days after Jacobs broke with his party and voiced support for a federal assault weapons ban.
Last week, as the nation mourned deadly shootings at a Texas elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket, Jacobs said he would vote for a federal assault weapons ban and other measures if he had a chance. His comments sparked furious backlash among conservatives, who have refused to consider new gun control legislation to try to curb the violence.
“I want to be completely transparent of where I am in Congress. If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” Jacobs said, according to Spectrum News 1.
He also voiced support for limiting magazine capacity, said he planned to write a bill banning body armor for civilians, and said he believed it was “perfectly reasonable” to raise the age limit to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21.
In an interview with the Buffalo News last week, Jacobs acknowledged his change of heart happened after the massacre in Buffalo, his hometown.
“I hope I’ve been compassionate when I read and heard about previous incidents like this that have happened over the years, but I guess there’s just something markedly different when it happens in your city, to people you know,” he said. “This has been a profoundly impactful event for me.”
The subsequent shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, shook him even further.
“Being a father and having young children and visualizing what those parents are going through and, I guess, being able to feel it more personally certainly has had an impact as well,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs’s position has been more than Republican leaders are willing to accept.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Sunday that Jacobs had “caved to the gun-grabbers.”
Republicans have largely ignored President Joe Biden’s pleas to back new measures to address gun violence despite polling that shows most U.S. adults think that mass shootings would happen less often if guns were harder to get, and support legislation that would curb access to guns or ammunition. But the numbers are highly partisan, with the vast majority of Republicans in disagreement.
Jacobs had been considered an easy favorite to win before his comments, which sparked a flurry of interest from rival Republicans including Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, best known for his combative campaign for governor in 2010. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of GOP leadership and rising star in the party, endorsed Paladino shortly after Jacobs’ announcement.
