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| Detective Barbara J. Mattson with a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle |
The petition to Republicans in Congress reads:
“Put your constituents before the National Rifle Association. Take immediate action to ban weapons of war, including assault weapons and large capacity magazines, which have no place in the hands of private citizens.”
Add your name:
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Within hours of Wednesday’s deadly mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school – which took the lives of at least 17 people – Republican politicians without the courage to support real solutions to our gun violence crisis released statements and social media posts offering their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their families.1
It was the exact same cowardly, ineffectual response they offered after gunmen wielding AR-15 assault rifles killed people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a concert in Las Vegas, Pulse nightclub in Orlando and Sandy Hook Elementary School.2
It is time for Republicans in Congress to join Democrats in standing up to the National Rifle Association and pass an assault weapons ban that will save American lives.
Tragic mass shootings like the one Wednesday in South Florida have become all too common. The last 5 months alone now account for three of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.3 In the past 5 years, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in the United States4 – including 18 so far in 2018 alone.5
According to Newsweek, “Florida has some of the weakest gun laws in the country.” Gun owners are not required to have a license, they are not required to register their guns and it is perfectly legal to own semi-automatic assault rifles like the one used in Wednesday’s tragic shooting.6 The heartbreaking truth is that the combination of weak state and federal gun laws made Wednesday’s horrific attack possible.
There’s one reason why politicians consistently fail to take real action on gun violence: The National Rifle Association. The NRA has a chokehold on Congress that keeps most bills about gun control from even coming to the floor for a vote. Politicians beholden to – or afraid of – the NRA are willing to turn their backs on their constituents when it comes time to implement reasonable limits and controls on guns. But you can count on them for a “heartbroken” tweet about their “thoughts and prayers” when a tragic shooting makes the national news.
Finally breaking the NRA’s chokehold on Congress will require massive grassroots pressure on our elected officials, demanding that they deliver more than thoughts and prayers in the face of our epidemic of gun violence.
We must forcefully demand that Congress takes immediate action to ban weapons of war, including assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Please add your name to our emergency petition now.
Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need gun control now. Click the link below to sign the petition:
- Heidi Hess, CREDO Action
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