Dear friend,

This is a long email, but it’s important, so I hope you’ll read on. With the horrific mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton, I wanted to collect my thoughts and tell you what I’m focused on when it comes to gun violence, and what we can do.

Where to start? Maybe, with the "talk." Kids are going back to school, and parents are thinking about what to tell them about what to do if there’s a shooter in the school. What to tell them about “active shooter drills” that have been adopted in schools around the country. What to tell them about how we’ve allowed this to happen. How to prepare them without alarming them. As if that’s really possible.

And it's not just schools. A mass shooting can happen anyplace, anytime, to anyone. In schools, in shopping malls, in movie theaters, in places of worship, at concerts, in offices, in night clubs, at festivals, in public parks... sadly, this list goes on, and on, and on.

It shouldn't be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. And if we force action, it won't be this way. We have the power to demand dramatic and meaningful change.

The House has already passed two bills -- HR 8 and HR 1112 -- to make background checks universal and close the Charleston loophole that allowed a shooter to kill innocent parishioners because there wasn’t time to complete the background check. The Senate must act. These bills enjoy the support of the vast majority of Americans. We could pass them tomorrow, and while they won’t stop every shooting, they can stop a lot of them, and they’ll save lives.

If you agree, add your name right now to demand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bring Senators back from recess and vote on commonsense gun safety legislation now.

That's a start, but it's not enough.

We also need to pass the Assault Weapons Ban. And ban extended ammunition clips. When the Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004 -- you guessed it -- gun deaths went up. We learned yesterday from Dayton police that the shooter in that case carried a magazine that allowed him to fire 100 times without reloading, which is how he shot 26 people in 32 seconds. It’s madness that he could legally buy such a device and carry it around with him, and the more we learn of the shooting, the more we see that it could have easily been much, much worse.

Another idea that I’ve been working on for years is repealing the unique "liability shield" which the NRA got passed in 2005 to shield the worst actors in the gun industry from responsibility for their actions. I have introduced legislation to repeal this liability shield that the gun industry doesn't deserve to ensure that victims and their families can have their day in court, because they deserve it and because it’s an important tool to force the gun industry to act responsibly.

Friend, I'm proud of my lifetime F rating from the NRA. I've earned it by voting against the NRA time after time after time, and introducing bills they lobby desperately to block. And in the last few years, we have finally put a dent in the myth of the NRA as a political powerhouse who politicians are terrified to cross, but we’re not done yet. The NRA is going to fight us tooth and nail. I'm going to keep fighting in Congress, and I need you to keep raising your voice.

Here's what you can do:

• Call your Senators at 202-224-3121. Tell them to pass HR 8 and HR 1112. Tell them to make background checks universal. Tell them your vote in 2020 depends on their vote.
• Keep putting pressure on Mitch McConnell. Add your name to demand that the Senate do its job, and vote on commonsense gun safety now.

The road ahead will not be easy. But it's because of activists in our community who have lost a loved one to gun violence, fearless leaders like my former colleague Gabby Giffords, and groups like Moms Demand Action, Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Brady Campaign that I know we can do it. We have to. Lives literally depend on it.

Thanks for all you do, and will continue to do.

--Adam