For Release: Sunday, August 4, 2019
Washington, DC — Following mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Violence Policy Center Executive Director Josh Sugarmann issued the following statement:
“This is insanity. Men, women, and children are being gunned down in our public spaces in mass attacks and as a nation we fail to act. The common, bloody thread that runs through these shootings is a semiautomatic firearm, frequently an assault weapon, equipped with a high-capacity detachable ammunition magazine. Until we reduce the firepower in civilian hands, and stop the gun industry from marketing increasingly lethal, military-bred firearms, this is our future and it will only get worse.”
For a fact sheet describing the military heritage of assault weapons and how they are designed to inflict maximum casualties, see http://vpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Assault-weapon-primer-2017-VPC.pdf.
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
