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John,
How many times must we confront the news that another mass shooting has taken the lives of innocent people going about their ordinary lives? How many times can Congress fail to do anything to prevent these things from happening?
Yet it’s not a mystery what the tragic common factor is in all these shootings: the use of assault weapons.
Assault weapons are weapons of war, intentionally designed to kill as many people in as short a time as possible. They were never intended for peacetime use against civilians, yet here we are, time after time, mourning the senseless loss of human life.
This time it’s in Lewiston, Maine, where 18 people died at a restaurant and bowling alley. In just over a decade, we have seen heartbreak after heartbreak, from Sandy Hook (2012) to Inland Regional Center (2015); from the Pulse nightclub (2016) to a Las Vegas music festival (2017); from Parkland, Florida (2018) to Uvalde, Texas (2023) -- and many more.
Enough is enough. Stop. No one outside of the military or law enforcement needs to buy another assault rifle. Sign the petition: it’s time for Congress to take action and ban assault rifles. Again.
It’s not as if we don’t know whether an assault weapons ban would work.
From 1994 to 2004, there was a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the United States, and during this time period the risk of a person dying in a mass shooting in this country decreased by 70%. Both the number of incidences, and the number of people killed in each instance, were significantly reduced.
It takes just seconds to reload an assault weapon magazine with 100 rounds -- about the same time it takes to load 6 bullets in a revolver with a speed loader. Without an assault weapon, a would-be mass killer has to reload much more frequently, creating a break in which victims can either escape or intervene to stop the attack.
Recently Congressman Jared Golden of Maine apologized to his constituents for opposing gun legislation prior to the horrific Lewiston attacks, and he vowed to support gun control efforts in the future.
We cannot wait until mass shootings reach every district in the country. We must regulate assault weapons and take them out of the hands of would-be mass killers now. Sign the petition and demand a ban on assault weapons today!
Thank you for helping to make our towns and cities safer places to live.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
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