1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

This morning a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed at least two children and injured at least 17 others (14 being children) at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. On July 28, 2025, a 27-year -old gunman with an AR15 killed four people including an off duty police officer - in a secure building where the NFL and Blackstone is headquartered in Manhattan, New York. Since a 20-year-old with an AR-15 hunted and killed 20 children and six educators in Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, too many Americans have been senselessly gunned down in public spaces by shooters with weapons of war in towns and cities across the nation. On July 29, 2022, the House of Representatives passed HR1808 to ban assault weapons in response to the heartbreaking mass shooting tragedies in Highland Park, Uvalde, Tulsa, and Buffalo. President Joe Biden was ready and willing to sign the bill into law but the ban was stalled in the Senate. With easy access to military-style semi-automatic assault weapons and high capacity magazines, too many individuals have turned our schools, malls, concerts, movie theaters, places of worship, stores, highways, parades, office buildings, and other public spaces into a war zone 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. There is absolutely no reason for assault rifles, assault pistols, and assault shotguns to be sold on the civilian market. Congress did not take action after Aurora, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, Pittsburgh, El Paso, Monterey Park, Nashville, Uvalde, Buffalo, Highland Park, and many other devastating mass shooting incidents and the scope of death and destruction caused by shooters with weapons of war is growing. Eugene Stoner, the inventor of AR-15s, said he designed them for military use! Innocent Americans - including children and law enforcement officers - are at a greater risk of being killed by AR-15s in the United States due to the fact that nearly 25% of all guns being manufactured now are AR-15s. The gun industry made $11 Billion selling 13.7 million AR-15s during the decade after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy. It's time for Congress to stop prioritizing gun industry profits over our lives. Your thoughts and prayers are not enough. ACT NOW to stop the carnage with an effective federal ban — H.R.3115 — on the civilian use of these weapons. NOW is the time to act!