WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) released the following statement:
“Once again, our nation has been shaken by a mass shooting of innocents who were simply going about their daily routines. My prayers are with the victims, their families, Umpqua Community College and the people of Oregon. The depravity that could motivate someone to carry out this type of savage attack seemingly is unfathomable, yet we’ve witnessed this type of behavior all too often across the country. After seeing these tragic scenes unfold everywhere, from schools to places of worship, we are left to not only ask ourselves ‘why’ but also ‘what could we have done as a society to prevent such an act?’ Too often after a mass shooting or even after a single person is shot, we surrender to the false logic that the problem is too expansive to address. There may not be a panacea to the plague of gun violence, but there are commonsense steps we can and should take. We cannot continue to wait for the next tragedy and the next tragedy before we enact the type of measures that a majority of Americans want to see in place.
“Now is the time to show the type of leadership an overwhelming majority of Americans want and finally do something to stem the tide of gun deaths in this country. Congress should act swiftly on requiring universal background checks for firearms buyers. We must also take steps to strengthen our mental health system and reduce the glorification of violence in our culture. We absolutely should move to ban assault weapons and prohibit high-capacity ammunition clips. The inability to take these small steps is perhaps of one of the greatest failings of Congress. I am committed to ending that failure and I hope other members of Congress need not wait until another innocent American is dead before they feel the same.”
###
