One year ago today, a man killed 19 children and 2 teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Ten days before that, a man killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

In the year since those slaughters, there have been literally hundreds of mass shootings in our country — including another in Texas earlier this month, when a man killed eight people at an outlet mall near Dallas.

In these and so many other mass shootings, the killer used an AR-15 style rifle.

Such 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.)

Last month, the Kaiser Family Foundation — a nonprofit that researches health issues — reported stunning data that 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 — over and over again, for as long as it takes — that our government do something about it.

Tell Congress:

Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly support regulating military-grade weapons. Listen to your actual constituents — not the gun manufacturers, not their shills at the NRA, not the gun-cult fringe. Stop the carnage. Ban assault weapons once and for all.

Click now to add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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