Rep. King, who has served in Congress since 1993, was elected to his 12th term in November 2014 with 68.5 percent of the vote in his district.
In March 2015, he and Rep. Mike Thompson (D) of California introduced a bipartisan bill to strengthen background checks for gun purchases – a similar version of which they had introduced in the their previous term.
The King-Thompson bill, like companion legislation proposed by senators Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia and Pat Toomey (R) of Pennsylvania, would have expanded the background-check system to cover all commercial firearm sales. It would also incentivize states to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Although gun control is often considered a liberal issue, King included a conservative caveat in his proposed legislation: the law explicitly bans the federal government from creating a registry of gun owners in the US.
Though the legislation did not pass, Newsday praised King as a “stand up guy who isn’t shy about tangling with the powerful, even those in his own party. King has become a national figure who delivers for the region and his district.”
