Niki Tsongas: “Our Nation has been repeatedly confronted by senseless and tragic acts of gun violence; and now our country grieves with…”

“Our Nation has been repeatedly confronted by senseless and tragic acts of gun violence; and now our country grieves with yet more heartache following the shocking and horrific attack in Dallas last week, an attack that took place during a peaceful protest where citizens were exercising their basic rights as Americans, as Dallas police officers supported and protected this fundamentally American right. As President Obama said: ``There is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement.'' This event added to an already heartbreaking week, after the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana. Today, I am thinking of their families, friends, and loved ones, as I am of the 49 lost at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando just a month ago. I believe that law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to own firearms, whether for sport or personal protection; but I also know that responsible personal freedom and public safety are not mutually exclusive. Shootings have become unacceptably commonplace in our country, and Congress has a responsibility to do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill. In fact, recent polls show that support for universal background checks hovers around 90 percent. No other developed country in the world has the same rate of gun violence as the United States.…”