We're just a few weeks into back-to-school… and the shootings are back, too.

Yesterday, two students and two teachers were murdered in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia. The shooter used an 'AR-15-style rifle.'

During my time in the Army, I ran willingly into gunfire and had friends of mine killed by assault weapons on the battlefield. No one should experience that in American schools.

It doesn't have to be like this.

Assault weapons belong in battle, not our schools.

Kevlar belongs in combat gear, not kids' backpacks.

Our schools, streets, movie theaters, and houses of worship should not be battlefields.

We do NOT have to live in a country where the #1 cause of death for kids is gun violence.

It makes me all the more disgusted by Brian Fitzpatrick's actions to single-handedly block commonsense gun legislation last year. Serving in combat? That takes courage. Voting "yes" for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban? Easy.

As Sandy Hook survivor Emma Ehrens told ABC News this summer, "People that have the power to make change should do it – instead of 17, 18 year olds trying to do their work for them."

It's really that simple. And it's why I'm determined to defeat Brian Fitzpatrick in November and be the fighter for policy and change that every single one of us deserves from our elected leaders.

Thanks for being in this fight with me as my co-pilot,

Ashley 🚁