They were watching a movie in Aurora. They were learning to read in Newtown. They were celebrating in San Bernardino. They were dancing in Orlando. And they were playing baseball in Alexandria.
Then they were shot by an assault-style rifle.
On the morning of June 14th, a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress and their staff in Alexandria, VA practicing for the annual congressional baseball game. My Representative Steve Scalise, a congressional staffer, and three others were shot. Thankfully no one was killed, but witnesses say that it would have been a massacre if not for the intervention of the U.S. Capitol Police officers who were on the scene.
The attacker used a semi-automatic weapon that within minutes had unleashed a barrage of bullets on the baseball field. These assault-style rifles are designed to kill a lot of people really quickly. That is their sole purpose, and that is why they are used so often in mass shootings. Seven out of the 10 mass shooting incidents with the highest number of people killed and wounded in the U.S. involved an assault-style rifle.
An assault weapons ban was in place for 10 years in the United States before Congress let it expire in 2004. In the 12 years since the NRA stopped the ban from being reauthorized, the death toll has spiked significantly.
How many more people have to get hurt? And how many more have to die before our country recognizes the need for gun control?
It is time to say enough is enough. Sign this petition to demand that the U.S. Congress acts now to pass legislation banning assault rifles.
