Sign now: Assault weapons ban

Congress needs to pass an assault weapons ban now. It's time to act.

Add your name to the petition to demand Congress reinstate an assault weapons ban. 

Dear MoveOn member, 

Six victims, slain in a school in Nashville, three of them just 9 years old. They are the latest victims in a gory, unacceptable epidemic of gun violence—and the latest souls whose brutal murders demand we take action to put our children and our communities ahead of the Republican loyalty to gun manufacturers and lobbyists.

 

Once again, the culprit used assault weapons—weapons of violence and mass destruction that have no place in civil society and were never dreamed of, much less protected, by the framers of the Constitution. As President Biden has already said: It's time to ban assault weapons. Please sign if you agree.

Congress must reinstate the assault weapons ban immediately. It worked in the past and can work again. We need commonsense, impactful action to tackle gun violence. Most Americans agree: Civilians do not need military-grade weaponry.

A dance hall in Monterey Park. A Buffalo supermarket. A school in Uvalde. A Fourth of July Parade outside Chicago. A nightclub that was an oasis for the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs. And these are just a few of the massacres over the past year.

 

Add Nashville's Covenant School to this list of places that will never be the same, that will be haunted by our society's inability to act due to Republican obstruction and the party's loyalty to the gun lobby.

 

Many Republican voters agree with commonsense measures, but Republican elected officials, who are in a ghoulish embrace with the NRA and others in the gun lobby, want to talk about anything other than guns when it comes to gun violence. That's why Republican leaders need to hear loud and clear: Voters expect you to take real action and will respect you for passing an assault weapons ban and other commonsense measures.

 

Please add your name to join the 167,000 fellow MoveOn members demanding that Congress act on an assault weapons ban.

 

Banning assault weapons will have immediate impact. It's supported by a wide number of Americans of all walks of life.¹ When there was a federal assault weapons ban, the number of gun-related deaths plummeted—and rose again when Republicans in Congress and President George W. Bush refused to renew it.²

 

The gun industry is opposed to bans—and opposed to any meaningful efforts to address gun violence in a real way. They would rather stoke fear and reap profits than address an epidemic that just doesn't exist in many other countries. Massacre after massacre occurs because of military-grade assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and the fast and deadly impact of these weapons. Without AR-15s and other assault weapons, the level of mass gun violence would drop immediately.³

 

There are so many steps we can take to address gun violence in a serious way—and while banning assault weapons wouldn't end all gun deaths, it would greatly reduce heinous episodes like today's.

 

Please add you name: Congress must reinstate the assault weapons ban immediately. And we'll make sure that Democrats know momentum is on their side to push forward, that sensible Republicans see they have the mandate to bring bipartisan support to such a measure, and that the rest of the Republicans know they'll be held accountable for choosing assault weapons over our children and communities.

 

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Sana, Oscar, Cheryl, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Polling is clear: Americans want gun control," Vox, June 1, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/163314?t=19&akid=348399%2E53570607%2ERMp9aL

2. "How Congress Passed an Assault Weapons Ban in 1994," The New York Times, June 22, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/163315?t=21&akid=348399%2E53570607%2ERMp9aL

3. "Assault weapon ban significantly reduces mass shooting," Northwestern Now, March 25, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/163316?t=23&akid=348399%2E53570607%2ERMp9aL

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