America’s firearm death rate has climbed to the highest level this country has seen in decades. With more than 100 deaths per day, a total of 38,000 Americans died from firearms in 2016. Not only is this statistic concerning, it reveals the real need to end gun violence in America.
From school shootings to the country’s “deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history in Las Vegas,” it’s time to call on Congress to protect its constituents and pass common sense gun control now.
According ta CDC analysis, 136 children and teenagers are shot every week with 22 percent of those shootings ending in fatality. More than 135,000 students have lived through a school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Last year, there was 77 incidents of gun violence, where a gun was discharged, in primary and secondary schools throughout the U.S.
State’s right-to-carry laws increase the handgun homicide rate with an estimated 3 million Americans openly admitted to carrying loaded handguns every day.
Gun violence also imposes high financial costs on our country. With an estimated $622 million in hospital bills, taxpayers are responsible for $242 million per year as a third of all firearm hospitalizations are covered under Medicaid and Medicare.
While the NRA spent $419 million dollars supporting Trump and Republican candidates in the 2016 campaign season, the organization’s spending continued through the first quarter of Trump’s first year at $2.3 million on lobbying, which was the highest than any previous quarter.
The time is now to hold Congress accountable and:
- vote no on the SHARE Act, which is a bill with provisions to ease restrictions on buying silencers while making it hard to regulate some types of ammunition as “armor-piercing.”
- vote no on the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill that mandates that states honor the concealed carry weapons permits of every other state, regardless of each state’s provision.
- require universal background checks of all firearms transactions through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
- ban all assault weapons.
We cannot allow gun violence to continue to reek havoc on our country. We cannot become another statistic. The time has come – We must stand up to gun violence and tell Congress #Enough.
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