It’s time for votes and actions, not just thoughts and prayers.
Another mass shooting. Another group of innocents slaughtered. Another public gathering place terrorized. Another community devastated. And another occasion for the gun lobby to say: Oh, well, move along, nothing to see here.
Not this time. We can’t let it happen again. We can’t let the gun lobby get away with it. Not when your community — your bowling alley, your bar, your house of worship, your movie theater, your supermarket, your shopping mall, your workplace and, yes, your child’s school — could be next. Unless we take action to adopt smart and common-sense gun laws, the question isn’t whether another massacre will occur — only how soon. And sadly, we know the answer: very soon.
In 2023 alone, there have been more than 565 incidents in which someone shot four or more people — that’s almost two mass shootings a day. The US is the only country in the world where this happens. We are not the only country with mentally ill people, of course, just the only country that makes it easy for nearly anyone, no matter how dangerous, to buy guns, including guns that were designed to be used by soldiers.
There is no reason any civilian needs to carry a military-grade rifle. It’s not a hunting weapon. It’s a weapon designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. The same is true for high-capacity magazines. If someone needs a high-capacity magazine to shoot a deer or a bird, they must be the world’s worst shot. They need an instructor, not a semiautomatic rifle.
The continued sale of these weapons and magazines not only places all Americans at risk, but it also endangers our police officers, including those who must track down and apprehend people who have shown no compunction about killing as many people as possible.