Amy Schumer speaks up for tighter gun control after ‘Trainwreck’ shooting

Amy Schumer and her distant cousin Charles Schumer teamed up Monday to promote tighter gun-control legislation being proposed by the Democratic senator from New York.

Amy and Chuck -- who knew, right? But yeah. Amy and Chuck.

The “Trainwreck” star choked back emotion as she set the stage for the senator’s remarks that would follow.

“For me, the pain I share with so many other Americans on the issue of gun violence was made extremely personal to me on Thursday, July 23, when Jo -- I’m not even going to say his name,” said Amy Schumer, 34, going off script for a moment. “When this, when -- he sat down for my movie, ‘Trainwreck,’ at the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, La. Two lives were tragically lost, and others injured, and I’ve thought about these victims each day since the tragedy.”

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter >>

The proposed legislation, as described later by the senator, would require states to report information to improve background checks, survey the states for best practices on involuntary commitment of the mentally ill and share that, and fund federal programs for mental-health and substance-abuse services.

“We’ll never know why people choose to do these painful things, but sadly we always find out how,” Amy Schumer continued. “How the shooter got their gun. It’s often something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“The critics scoff and say, ‘Well, there’s no way to stop crazy people from doing crazy things,’ but they’re wrong,” she said before handing the mic over to her cousin. “There is a way to stop them. Preventing dangerous people from getting guns is very possible.”

The comic and actress, who’s already known for her hey-that’s-just-me feminism, was pulled into the gun-control debate after John Russell Houser opened fire in that Louisiana movie theater, killing two people and wounding nine before fatally shooting himself.

“My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana,” she tweeted the night of the shooting.

Then on Friday, Sarah Clements, daughter of a woman who survived the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., wrote directly to the “Inside Amy Schumer” star in an open letter that highlighted the role of women in the effort to beef up gun control.

“I know deep down that the tweet you sent after the shooting was not all that you’ve got,” Clements wrote. “And we need your voice in this movement. We need your help....

“Demand change. Be a voice for our generation and for women -- two groups who make up most of the victims of the gun violence in our country.”

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.

ALSO:

Amy Schumer: ‘I don’t try to be feminist. I just am. It’s innately inside me’

The Kim and Amy Schumer show — just rub it in

Anne Hathaway welcomes ‘Trainwreck’ joke about her; Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow respond