Open Letter to President Donald Trump & 116th Congress to Ban Assault Weapons

August 19, 2019

President Donald Trump

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

317 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Majority WHIP John Thune

United States Senate SD-511

Washington, DC 20510

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer

322 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham

290 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

1236 Longworth House Office Building

Washington DC 20510

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

1705 Longworth House Office Building

Washington DC 20510

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

2468 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20510

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler

2132 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20510

CC: All Members of 116th Congress

Dear President Trump, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader Hoyer, Leader Schumer, Leader Thune, Leader McCarthy, Chairman Graham, and Chairman Nadler,

Too many Americans are being senselessly gunned down in public spaces in towns and cities across the nation.

With easy access to military-style semi-automatic assault weapons, bump stocks, and high capacity ammunition magazines, too many individuals have turned our schools, malls, concerts, movie theaters, stores, restaurants, nightclubs, food festivals, streets, workplaces, and places of worship into war zones filled with terror, devastation, and terrible loss.

Military-style semi-automatic assault weapons are designed to efficiently kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time available.

On July 20, 2012, a 24-year-old white male killed 12 people and injured 70 others (58 from gunfire) with assault weapons and high capacity magazines inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old white male killed 26 children and educators with an AR-15 and high capacity magazines in less than five minutes at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

On December 2, 2015, a homegrown extremist couple killed 14 people and 22 others with assault weapons and high capacity magazines in an attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.

On June 12, 2016, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and injured 53 others with an assault weapon and high capacity magazines in an attack targeting LGBTQI community inside the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

On June 3, 2017, gunmen armed with AK-47s trafficked illegally into Mexico killed 6 people and wounded 22 others at Chicho’s Bar in Chihuahua city in northern Mexico.

On October 1, 2017, a 64-year-old white male killed 58 people and wounded 851 (422 by gunfire) with an AR-15, bump stocks, and high capacity magazines at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On November 5, 2017, a 26-year-old white male, with domestic violence history and dismissed from the U.S. Air Force, killed 26 people (including an unborn baby) and wounded 20 others with an assault weapon and high capacity magazines inside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

On February 14, 2018, a 19-year-old white male killed 17 students and educators and injured 17 others with an AR-15 and high capacity magazines at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

On April 22, 2018, a 29-year-old male killed 4 people and injured 2 others with an AR-15 and high capacity magazines at the Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee.

On October 27, 2018, a 46-year-old anti-Semitic white male killed 11 people and injured six others with an assault weapon and high capacity magazines at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

On April 19 2019, unidentified gunmen killed 14 people, including an infant boy, and wounded three others with AR-15s and AK47s illegally trafficked into Mexico, at a family party in Minatitlán, Veracruz in Mexico.

On May 31, 2019, a 40-year-old disgruntled city employee killed 12 people and injured 4 others fatally with an assault weapon and high capacity magazines in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

On June 18, 2019, a group of gunmen attacked a Mexican army patrol and killed 4 people and wounded 10 others using AK-47s illegally trafficked into Mexico, in Tlacotepec in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.

On Sunday, July 28, 2019, a 19-year-old male killed 3 people and injured 13 others with an AK-47-type assault rifle and high capacity magazines at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.

On Saturday, August 3, 2019, a 21-year-old male with white supremacist ideation killed 22 people, including eight Mexican citizens, and injured 24 others with an AK-47-style assault rifle, high capacity magazines and 8M3 ammunition in Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

On Saturday, August 3, 2019, a 24-year-old male killed 9 people and injured 31 others with a legally purchased .223-caliber rifle and 100-round drum magazines in 24 seconds outside a nightclub at a nightlife district in downtown Dayton, Ohio.

There is absolutely no reason for weapons of war—assault rifles, assault pistols, and assault shotguns—to be sold on the civilian market. In 2004, Congress and President Bush failed to reauthorize and strengthen the 1994 federal assault weapons ban which enabled their use in Aurora, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Thousand Oaks mass shooting incidents in America. Now, the Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton families and communities are reeling.

Unless you take immediate action to regulate assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and bump stocks then the scope of death and destruction caused by weapons of war will continue to escalate and Americans and Mexicans will continue to live in fear.

We demand that you act now to stop the carnage with an effective federal ban on the civilian use of assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and bump stocks. H.R. 1296 and S. 66 Assault Weapons Ban of 2019 are ready for a hearing and a vote. NOW is the time to act!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

American Federation of Teachers

Amnesty International USA

Arizonans for Gun Safety

Avaaz

Ban Assault Weapons Now!

Bishops United Against Gun Violence

Brady

Catholic Religious Community NY

Ceasefire Oregon

CeaseFire Pennsylvania

Center of Ecumenical Studies

Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos a.c/ Center of Ecuménicos Studies, Mexico City

CEO Pipe Organs/Golden Ponds Farm

Change The Ref

Chester Community Coalition

Children's Defense Fund

Citizens for Peace

Coalition Against Gun Violence

Coalition Against Gun Violence, a Santa Barbara County Coalition

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

Colorado Ceasefire

Courage Campaign

CT Against Gun Violence

Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence

Democracy Action Marin

Disciples HOme Missions, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination

Docs Demand Action

Doctors for America

Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt, NY

Dubuque Coalition for Nonviolence

Ebony’s Hope

Episcopal Peace Fellowship

Falmouth Gun Safety Coalition

Fellowship for Today

Franciscan Action Network

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Friends of Michigan Animals Rescue

Gays Against Guns

Georgia Alliance for Social Justice

Georgia Rural Urban Summit and others

Georgians for Gun Safety

Global Exchange

Grandmothers Against Gun Violence - Cape Cod

Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice

Greenpeace US

Gun Violence Prevention Action Committee

Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah

Guns Down for America

Gunsense Vermont

Herd on the Hill

Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence

Huntington Woods Peace, Citizenship, & Action Project

International Health & Epidemiology Research Center

Iowans for Gun Safety

Joint Action Committee

Journey 4ward

Jr Newtown Action Alliance

Lansing UN Association

Latin America Working Group

Lift Every Voice Oregon

Long Island Activists

Long Islanders for Gun Safety

MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence Steering Committee

March For Our Lives

March For Our Lives DC

March For Our Lives Maine

March For Our Lives Minnesota

March For Our Lives New Hampshire

March for Our Lives Texas

March for Our Lives, Hebron, CT

Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence

Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence

Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN)

Million Hoodies Movement for Justice

Missionary Sisters of Immaculate Conception

MomsRising

Mt Vernon Unitarian Church

NALC

Nassau NOW

National Council of Jewish Women

National Education Association

National Equality Action Team (NEAT)

National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

Nebraskans Against Gun Violence

New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence

Newtown Action Alliance

NoRA

North Carolina Council of Churches

North Carolinians Against Gun Violence

Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence

Orange Ribbons for Gun Safety

Pax Christi Michigan

Peace Action of Michigan

Physicians for the Prevention of Gun Violence

Physicians of Social Responsibility

Pride Fund to End Gun Violence

Programa Casa Refugiados, Mexico City

Psychiatrists for Gun Violence Prevention

Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association

Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence

Safe Places Alliance

Safe Tennessee Project

San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention

School Sisters of St Francis, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, Syracuse, New York

Srs. of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Los Angeles, California

St. Bonaventure Province

St. Marks Episcopal Church Capitol Hill DC

States United to Prevent Gun Violence

Stop Handgun Violence

Suffolk Progressives

Survivors Empowered Action Fund

Survivors Lead

The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus

The Connecticut Effect

The ENOUGH Campaign

The Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence

This Is Our Lane

UltraViolet

Unitarian Universalist Faith Action New Jersey

Urban Word NYC

UUPLAN Unitarian Universalist PA Legislative Action Network

Violence Policy Center

Vision Quilt

Vote Like a Mother

Washington Ceasefire

WAVE Educational Fund

We the People for Sensible Gun Laws

Wheaton Franciscan Sisters

Woman's National Democratic Club

Women Against Gun Violence

Women’s March

Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice