John,

It's Kris Brown, president here at Brady. Yesterday, I joined Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering at their Fourth of July parade, one year since their community was changed forever.

In 2022, a gunman armed with an assault rifle killed seven people and injured 48 others at the same parade. This year, we came together to honor those killed, support those who still bear their injuries, and demand change.  

This community is on a long path to healing, and one year has done little to close these wounds. But there was so much hope and resilience even among the trauma and fear still weighing heavily on the families there. The community of Highland Park refuses to give up and give in to this cycle of violence. And we must stand with them. So please, will you join me in demanding change by calling on Congress to ban assault weapons like the one used in the Highland Park shooting a year ago?

Should Congress ban assault weapons?

As I walked along the parade route, I looked up to the rooftops, remembering how the gunman planted himself there, ensuring a shower of bullets would fall on the unsuspecting crowd below. He fired 83 bullets in total. I thought of how tightly packed the route must have been on that day, with families sitting in lawn chairs along the curb and floats stretching far down the road.

Mayor Rotering, who was there for last year's parade, assumed the gunfire was a strange drumbeat from the high school marching band in those initial moments. When she realized what was happening, she found herself running on instinct, yelling for families to flee, directing the crowd away from danger.

Walking in the same parade a year later, it's no wonder that a gunman armed with an assault weapon was the last thing on Mayor Rotering's mind. This is a  community full of neighbors and families — not a war zone. It seems impossible that their parade could erupt into deadly chaos in just a moment. But that's the reality of life in a country where weapons of war are allowed on our streets.

No community, no city, no neighborhood can be free from fear until our leaders finally, finally, choose to take action against the gun lobby. And that won't happen if we don't raise our voices on days like today and demand change. So please, John, before our poll closes at midnight tonight, will you respond to call on Washington to finally pass an assault weapons ban?

Should Congress ban assault weapons?

Thank you,

Kris Brown
President, Brady