Missouri and Kansas senators must listen to the clear majority: Ban assault weapons | Opinion

We need a federal ban on assault weapons now. Bills that would accomplish this popular goal are now sitting in the House as H.R. 698 and the Senate at S. 25, waiting for a vote.

Gun violence is the No. 1 cause of death for children in this country, and most of our nation’s deadliest recent mass shootings have been carried out with legally purchased assault weapons.

We know a federal assault weapons ban saves lives. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. From 1994 to 2004, the manufacture and civilian use of semiautomatic and automatic assault weapons was prohibited. For the decade this ban was in effect, we saw a 70% decrease in mass shooting deaths. According to a new Fox News poll, 61% of Americans support a ban on assault weapons — a clear majority in a country that is so often deeply divided. We must act now.

On June 6, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to ask our senators to reinstate the assault weapon ban. I met others like me — normal folks, not politicians or lobbyists — who feel a moral imperative to support the ban. Veterans, doctors, mothers, fathers — some conservative, some liberal, some gun owners, some who had never touched a firearm.

I listened to a Vietnam veteran who committed his life to serving our country describe why he sees an assault weapon ban as a “no-brainer.” A lifelong conservative and gun owner himself, he described the AR-15 rifle as a “weapon of war” that has no place on our streets. He cried when he explained why he decided to make the trip to D.C. He fears for the lives of his kids and his grandchildren. He’s becoming a single-issue voter and just wants his senators, Republicans for whom he voted, to listen to him.

I listened to a pediatrician from West Virginia describe the gun violence epidemic as a public health crisis. He explained what assault weapons do to the tiny bodies of children. These weapons are killing machines that pulverize bones and eviscerate organs. They render human bodies unrecognizable and turn classrooms into war zones. The doctor read a letter from his church supporting gun law reform. He and I held hands and wept as he described the beautiful souls we’ve lost to gun violence as children of God.

I met other mothers who, like me, live this hell every day. We send our perfect, innocent children to school knowing that as much as we try, we don’t have the power to keep them safe. Our beautiful babies crouch in corners, under desks, in bathrooms in active shooter drills, which are as commonplace today as fire drills.

I pleaded with bright young men and women — lawmakers’ staffers just starting their careers — to listen to me. I told them that every time I’m in a public space with my two sons, I wonder if I can move fast enough to shield them with my own body. I recounted my panic attacks after my sons’ preschool started conducting active shooter drills. I asked these young people to look into their hearts, to save us, to save our children from this madness.

I’m not anti-gun. I’m not anti-Second Amendment. But weapons of war do not belong in the hands of civilians.

I’m begging our lawmakers to listen. Sens. Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall: Listen to the people of Missouri and Kansas. We can’t do this alone, Senators. We need you. This is your time to be heroes. Please. You have the power to save lives. Pass the ban.

Gun reform can be our generation’s greatest achievement, but we don’t have a second to lose. Take my hand. We can do this together.

Anna Dudenhoeffer Simpson is an attorney and co-founder of Lives on the Line, a grassroots nonprofit organization of mothers from Missouri and Kansas dedicated to finding radically bipartisan solutions to gun violence. Lives on the Line does not lobby.

To support the assault weapons ban, call your senators and ask them to back S. 25. Tell them this issue is of the utmost importance to you, and that you thank them for their time and hard work.

Hawley: 202-224-6154

Schmitt: 202-224-5721

Moran: 202-224-6521

Marshall: 202-224-4774