WASHINGTON — Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., stood with a Louisville trauma surgeon, House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force demanding change Thursday.

Drafting stricter gun safety legislation that can pass both chambers will be difficult with Republicans in control of the House, but McGarvey, the only Democrat in Kentucky’s congressional delegation, said that “doing nothing is not working.”

“That’s why Democrats are out here asking for help. That’s why this week I’ve been approaching my colleagues in the Republican caucus on the floor of the House asking them ‘where can you meet us? Where can we work on this legislation?’ I’ll be honest, I haven’t gotten anywhere yet,” McGarvey told reporters.

McGarvey points out that both the parents of the gunman who killed five people at the Old National Bank in Louisville and some of those close to the victims are calling for stricter gun regulations.

“We learned that the shooter of the Old National Bank was seeing a psychiatrist for suicidal ideation and walking in and within 40 minutes had purchased an AR-15 and the ammunition to go with it,” McGarvey said.

Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer and trauma surgeon at the UofL Health, treated patients after the mass shootings in Louisville joined McGarvey on Capitol Hill to advocate for change. Smith said that treating gunshot wounds is a regular occurrence at the hospital. He reflected on the two mass shooting that occurred in Louisville earlier this month. 

“The simple fact of the matter is that between a mass shooting on Monday and a mass shooting that occurred on Saturday, I had 18 other gunshot wounds in my community that week that I had to deal with,” Smith said.

Besides this recent push for stricter gun safety legislation, McGarvey wrote a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives urging them to destroy the gun that was used in the bank shooting.

“Right now, Kentucky law requires weapons that are used in a crime to be confiscated and then put it up for auction where they can go back on the street,” McGarvey said. “We want to make sure this gun is confiscated and destroyed for good.”

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., of Bowling Green joined McGarvey on that letter.

During an interview with Spectrum News 1 on Friday, McGarvey said he had not yet received a response from the agency.