Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to speak in support of legislation to address the ever increasing instances of gun violence and to urge our Republican colleagues to finally join us in our effort to save lives. I became mayor of San Francisco as a result of gun violence, and from my first day in the Senate, trying to reduce the number of lives needlessly lost to gun violence has been my mission. I authored the Federal assault weapons ban that was in place from 1994 to 2004. Since that ban expired 15 years ago, the number of mass shootings has risen dramatically. According to data from Mother Jones, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people killed, we have suffered through 77 such massacres, leaving 643 dead and 1,055 injured. That is why I have introduced an updated assault weapons ban, which will keep weapons of war off of our streets. Compared with the 10-year period before the 1994 Federal assault weapons ban, the number of gun massacres between 1994 and 2004 fell by 37 percent. The number of people dying from gun massacres fell by 43 percent. The fact is that the assault weapons ban worked. Firearms like the AR-15 have become the mass shooter's weapon of choice, and they become even more dangerous with the use of modifications like bump stocks. We will never forget that, in 2017 in Las Vegas, 58 people were killed and 422 wounded in our Nation's worst mass shooting. Simply put, there is no reason why civilians need weapons like these.…”