John Garamendi: “It is time to act. On January 19, 1989, my wife Patti and I entered the ICU at San Joaquin General Hospital. We were…”

“It is time to act. On January 19, 1989, my wife Patti and I entered the ICU at San Joaquin General Hospital. We were there to see a five-year-old boy and his parents, who recently fled from war-torn Laos. The boy was fighting for his life. A day earlier, a gunman, armed with an AK 47c, walked onto the playground at Cleveland Park Elementary School in Stockton California and started shooting, killing five children and injuring thirty-two. ``We came here to escape war,'' the boy's parents pleaded. ``How could this happen in America?'' I represented Stockton in the California Senate in 1989 during the Cleveland Park Elementary shooting. After hearing from first responders and victims, I introduced legislation that would become California's assault weapons ban--the first of its kind in the nation. Senator Dianne Feinstein bravely took up the case in Washington, and in 1994 Congress passed and President Clinton signed the federal assault weapons ban into law. Unfortunately, the federal ban expired in 2004 when the Republican-led Congress refused to extend the ban. Tragically, mass shootings have been on the rise ever since Congress let the assault weapons ban expire. Last month in Texas, days after his 18th birthday, a man purchased two AR-15-style assault rifles and 375 rounds of 5.56-caliber ammunition. Days later, on May 24, 2022, he entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and murdered 19 fourth-grade children and two teachers.…”