We Are Not Powerless

Statement

Dear Friend,

Like everyone else, I woke up yesterday morning to learn of the shooting in Las Vegas, watching with horror as the death toll rose higher and higher with every update. It's hard to find the words each time one of these shootings take place. They're massacres, they're terror attacks of one kind or another, and they've also become so tragically common.

It's entirely appropriate in the early hours after a tragedy to offer thoughts, prayers and condolences. If this shooting happened in our community, we would hope the entire nation would join in our grief and our sorrow, much as they did after San Bernardino. But that is not enough. The simple fact is that rote expressions of sadness or regret following mass shootings and the daily tide of gun violence in our nation does nothing to save the life of the next American to be cut down by this plague.

But we are not powerless to do something about the epidemic of mass shootings. Yes, we cannot stop them all, but we can prevent some of them and those we cannot prevent, we can make less lethal. The fact that no single solution will stop every single attack is not a reason to do nothing.

We can improve mental health treatment, since mental illness is often a factor. We can crack down on terrorist recruitment online. And we can enact common sense gun safety reforms including universal background checks, legislation to restore the Assault Weapons Ban and limit the capacity of ammunition clips. Each of us in Congress -- Democrat and Republican -- should be recommitting ourselves to do what we can do to prevent and mitigate these terrible attacks.

That was true after the massacre at the Pulse nightclub, which was barely more than a year ago. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Not any more. It was true when 26 young children and teachers were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was true in Blacksburg when a shooter killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus. And it is true day after day with more than 30,000 Americans dying each year by gunshot, many that receive little more than a mention in the news.

I'm reminded of what President Obama said after the tragedy at Newtown: "We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news, I react not as a President, but as anybody else would: as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do."

Yesterday, we mourned yet another mass shooting; today, we must refuse to accept the blood soaked streets of Las Vegas as an immutable fact of life in our nation. We must refuse to accept the idea that we are powerless to save the lives of our fellow Americans. And we must rededicate ourselves to do more than mourn the dead, but to fight to save the living.

You can always share your thoughts through Facebook or Twitter. As always, I welcome hearing from you on these and any other issues, and hope that you will stay in touch.

Sincerely,

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