NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCSB 880) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams was the lead signatory on a letter to Speaker of the House US Representative Mike Johnson that was released on Thursday calling on Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban.
The letter was prompted by yet another mass shooting that happened on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, Maine. Eighteen people were killed in the shooting, and 13 were injured.
The call to action begins by highlighting the sites of some of the most harrowing mass shootings in US history – Uvalde, El Paso, Parkland, Sandy Hook – and the 62 signatories demanding “more than thoughts and prayers” from Congress.
To Johnson, specifically, the address calls on him to “lead [his] colleagues and save lives from gun violence by prohibiting assault weapons.”
“In some states in this country, it’s easier to buy a weapon of war than it is to buy a Sudafed,” Adams said in a press release announcing the letter and coalition. “As a result, we can’t feel safe in the places where we should feel safest – our movie theaters, our music festivals, our houses of worship, and even our schools.”
Joining Adams in signing the document are mayors from cities like Buffalo, NY and Highland Park, IL that have experienced mass shootings carried out with the use of assault weapons.
“Without a federal assault weapons ban, Americans are at risk of attack anytime, anywhere. Living with this pervasive threat of mass violence is not freedom. Now is the time for Congress to prioritize our nation’s public safety and turn thoughts and prayers into action,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said.
In the letter, the mayors point out why assault weapons are such a commonality in these attacks: “assault weapons are military-style firearms designed to shoot and kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”
According to a 2018 study conducted by the Journals of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, mass shootings deaths were 70% less likely to occur when the federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was in effect between 1994 and 2004.
“We will continue to work tirelessly in New York City and in cities across the nation to drive shootings down and prevent every form of gun violence – whether it’s the mass shootings that make the headlines or the daily gun violence and gun suicides that don’t. But we need our partners in Washington, DC to do their part as well,” Adams said.
Adams’ released his “Blueprint to End Gun Violence” in January 2022 where he outlined his priority to lower gun violence in the city, and over the course of his administration gun violence has been reduced by double digits, the Mayor’s Office said.
“Our communities were never meant to be war zones. But with unfettered access to assault weapons on our streets, that is what so many have become, with all the same bloodshed and carnage,” the letter reads.
“As we continue to work in our cities to prevent gun violence and protect our constituents, we need Congress to do the same.”