Stop Handgun Violence Response to Las Vegas Concert Shooting
Boston, MA – Last night a gunman perched in a hotel room on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas shot and killed at least 58 concert-goers and wounded 515 others. After raining bullets and terror down on concert-goers, the shooter was found dead in his hotel room. While the details of this latest mass shooting – the worst in US history – continue to emerge, Stop Handgun Violence founder John Rosenthal made the following statement:
“While the horrific magnitude of this massacre is yet unknown, we do know that the shooter was able to get access to at least ten high-powered firearms capable of large scale destruction. We know that our national gun policy allows unrestricted access to military style assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips, and this irresponsible public policy has deadly consequences. Congress and the President are responsible for dangerous gun policies that make mass shootings and 91 Americans dead from gun violence a daily occurrence in the US.
“Congress took zero action when 26 died at Sandy Hook, 32 died at Virginia Tech, 70 were injured at Aurora, and 107 injured at Orlando. How many others will be shot and killed in vain? Congress and the president continue to send prayers while working to make deadly weapons more available without background checks or detection by law enforcement. Clearly Congress and the President care more about gun lobby blood money campaign contributions than public health and safety from preventable gun violence.
“Right now, Trump and the gun lobby are pushing legislation through Congress that would undermine and dismantle the concealed carry permitting system of each state and a second bill that would deregulate silencers and make it easy to kill without detection. We reap what we sow and must work together to defeat these bills. We must instead pass legislation to protect Americans, like urban Massachusetts has done on a bipartisan basis, achieving the lowest gun death rate in the nation.”