And as the GOP tracks further to the right, there’s even less support for gun restrictions. The lack of appetite among the conservative base for banning these weapons narrows the political incentive for Republican lawmakers to act. And it demonstrated the political utility of the new law for the Republican leader, since it means he can argue after future massacres that Congress has already acted.īut the bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden late last month, which fell well short of banning assault weapons, showed the limits of the political will in Congress to act, despite majority support in the country for more gun safety measures. His comments fit into the Republican conceit that the availability of deadly weapons used by mass shooters isn’t an issue. So, I think the bill that we passed targeted the problem,” the Kentucky Republican said. The problem is mental health and these young men who seem to be inspired to commit these atrocities. “I think yesterday’s shooting is another example of what the problem is. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated on Tuesday that the prospects of new gun control legislation any time soon are dim. What we know about the Highland Park shooting suspect Yet the chances of renewing the assault weapons ban may never have been worse since the expiry of the original law nearly two decades ago.Ī Lake Forest police officer walks down Central Avenue in Highland Park, Ill., on Monday, July 4, 2022, after a shooter fired on the northern suburb's Fourth of July parade. The AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle, was the sort of armament prohibited under the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.ĪR-15s or weapons with similar characteristics were used by the Uvalde shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers, by the alleged Buffalo supermarket massacre perpetrator, by the killer at a Florida high school in 2018 and in countless other mass killings in the US. The suspect, Robert Crimo III, allegedly fired more than 70 rounds from the rooftop of a business near the shooting using a rifle “similar to an AR-15.” “There is no reason that we have weapons of war on the streets of America. “An assault weapon is designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly,” Harris said, before visiting the scene in Highland Park, which is not far from Chicago. Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday issued a new call for Congress to pass restrictions on assault-style weapons, which were omitted from the recently passed bipartisan gun law, the most significant firearms safety measure in decades. What we know about the Highland Park shooting But it is so far doing little to reshape the politics of gun control. Such gruesome first-hand testimony is fueling new calls for political action. He described “two children, whose bodies had been so pulverized by the bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been so ripped apart that the only clue as to their identities was (their) blood spattered cartoon clothes.” Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who worked at the hospital in Uvalde, Texas, that accepted injured and dead from the massacre at Robb Elementary School in May. His comments recalled the harrowing testimony of Dr. There was another person who had an unspeakable head injury,” Baum said. “Literally some of the bodies were, there was an evisceration injury, from the power of this gun and the bullets. David Baum, an obstetrician who treated victims on site after Monday’s shooting at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, told CNN.Īuthorities have said the suspect used a “high-powered rifle,” which the spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force described as “similar to an AR-15.” “The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire – blown up,” Dr. 'Those are wartime injuries': Doctor describes the horrific scene at the Highland Park shooting
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