On Monday, a man killed five people and wounded eight others at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky.
As has become tragically common in America, the killer used an AR-15 style rifle.
These and other military-grade weapons exist for exactly one reason — to mow down human beings as rapidly and ferociously as possible.
Yet they can be purchased with almost no restrictions. (And Republican politicians in some states are actively making it even easier to obtain them.)
On Tuesday, the Kaiser Family Foundation — a nonprofit that researches health issues — reported the stunning results of a recent survey:
One in five adult Americans has a family member who has been killed by a gun.
Kaiser also found that over half of U.S. adults have been directly affected by an incident involving a gun — such as themselves or family members witnessing a shooting, being threatened with a gun, or being injured or killed by a gun.
And we already knew that guns have become the leading cause of death among American children. Not disease. Not malnutrition. Not accidents. (Auto accidents had been the leading cause of death among children for decades until being overtaken by guns in 2020.)
This is what happens in a country — the only one on Earth — that has more guns than people.
It is — quite literally — insane.
It is American exceptionalism at its most degenerate.
It is a national disgrace.
We must continue to demand — louder than ever — that our government do something about it.
Tell every member of Congress:
Ban assault weapons once and for all. Listen to your actual constituents — Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly support regulating military-grade weapons — not the gun manufacturers, their shills at the NRA, or the gun-cult fringe. Ban assault weapons before even more blood is spilled. Ban them. Ban them. BAN THEM!
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Thanks for taking action.
For progress,
- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
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