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John,
Assault weapons are weapons of war. They are intentionally designed to kill as many people in as short a time as possible. They were never intended for use against civilians, yet here we are, time after time, mourning the senseless loss of human life.
This time it’s a heartbreaking high school shooting in Iowa on January 4th. When a 17-year-old boy opened fire on his fellow students, killing a sixth-grade student and wounding five others before he killed himself, the school principal, Dan Marburger, was fatally wounded as he tried to talk down the youth.
"As I heard of a gunman,” wrote the principal’s daughter, Claire, “I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim, as he would put himself in harm’s way for the benefit of the kids and his staff. It is absolutely zero surprise to hear he tried to approach and talk [the shooter] down and distract him long enough for some students to get out of the cafeteria. That's just Dad."
Just three weeks into the new year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, as of January 21 there have been 22 mass shootings in the United States (defined as shootings with 4 or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter). This comes to an average of literally one mass shooting per day.
This story is just one of far too many. It’s time to clear civilian life of weapons of war. Sign the petition: it’s time for Congress to take action and pass the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 now.
Just last November, in Lewiston, Maine, 18 people died at a restaurant and bowling alley. In just over a decade, we have seen tragedy after tragedy, 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, many more.
How many times must we confront the news that another mass shooting has taken the lives of innocent people going about their daily lives? How many times can Congress fail to do anything about it? Yet so many of these shootings include a common factor: the use of assault weapons.
It’s crazy that we allowed a previous assault weapon ban to expire in 2004. 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 dying in a mass shooting in this country decreased by 70%.
When the assault weapons ban was in place, 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 further attacks.
The time has come -- we can wait no longer! We must get assault weapons out of the hands of would-be mass killers now. Sign the petition and demand passage of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 today!
Thank you for helping to make America a safer place to live.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
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