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