— from Congressman Rick Larsen’s Office —
Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) today released the following statement urging Congress to take action on legislation to prevent gun violence:
Thoughts and prayers can comfort, lend strength, and help heal – but they cannot prevent gun violence. Gun safety legislation can, specifically by:
- Re-instating a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines above 10 rounds;
- Lifting the ban on federally-funded research into the causes of gun violence, and;
- Strengthening background checks, including by extending the period of time investigators have to complete a delayed background check from three to 14 days.
These policies would not prevent every massacre, but they would give law enforcement more tools to prevent killings, provide lawmakers with a better understanding of firearm-related homicide and suicide, and limit the breadth and depth of damage would-be killers can inflict.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#810912″ class=”” size=””]”Thoughts and prayers can comfort, lend strength, and help heal – but they cannot prevent gun violence. Gun safety legislation can.”[/perfectpullquote]
In every corner of the United States, including in my District, gun massacres are a fact of life: In 2016, a gunman killed five people at the Cascade Mall in Burlington. In 2014, a student opened fire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, killing four. In 2008, six people were killed in a Skagit County shooting spree. And some of my constituents have been affected by the October 1st shooting in Las Vegas.
Congress has a responsibility to keep Americans safe from mass shootings.
That is why I am once again calling on Members on both sides of the aisle to take responsibility for what is within our control – the law. No single law can prevent the actions of a murderer, but there are steps Congress can take to save lives and make communities safer from gun violence.
So far, no law has ever prevented insane and fanatic people from perpetrating violence against innocent people.
Making more laws will do nothing, because criminals, fanatics, and crazy people do not obey laws.
Extending waiting periods to 14 days, or even to 30 days, will have no effect.
The insane will be quite content to wait, nursing his anger, and neither the criminal nor the fanatic buys his weapons through normal retail channels.
The Las Vegas shooter was already equipped to make fertilizer bombs. Can you imagine what the horrible effects of a fertilizer bomb might have been?
And there is absolutely no way to prohibit fanatics and the insane from making bombs from commonly-available ingredients!
Making yet another law is an easy, feel-good “solution” to a problem which is really not so easy to solve.
Instead, we might focus upon enforcing our many already-existing laws more stringently, and upon identifying the insane among us long before their angers boil over.
Thank you, Steve! (And some new bill which wistfully mandates Critical Thinking and Common Sense will just die in committee anyway.)
I defiantly believe we need better background checks! I think mental checks also. Having any gun control isn’t going to work in my opinion. Saying this gun should be illegal will not help anything. The Las Vegas shooting is a great example how gun control will not work. They have a gun control policy. No guns allowed. Guns are illegal on the grounds. He still got 1900 rounds of amo etc in there! This shows how much someone with a mental illness can still get guns in a “controlled area/no gun area”. We need more help on security and being more aware of our surroundings. People need more security in places like las Vargas. I do not believe “gun control/banning guns” will work. More safety classes and awareness should be our first thought. There are sooo much internet how tos also. He got bombs, if I read the article right. Well banning bombs etc isn’t going to help either. Teenagers have proven this theory many times. You can grab things in your house now to build a bomb. Just need to look on the internet. Another security problem! We should be banning the internet use of how to build a bomb.