September 22 D.C. March Will Urge Senate To Pass Assault Weapon Ban

September 22 isn’t March Fourth. However that’s the day that the March Fourth group can be holding one other march in Washington, DC. March Fourth describes itself as a nonprofit, non-partisan advocacy group “with a singular mission: to federally ban assault weapons.” So the September 22 March Fourth march can be a method to urge the U.S. Senate to go a bill that was authored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) and bought by the U.S. Home of Representatives as H.R. 1808 on July 29. This invoice bears the identify “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022,” and would make it “illegal for an individual to import, promote, manufacture, switch, or possess, in or affecting interstate or overseas commerce, a semiautomatic assault weapon.” The emphasis right here is on the phrase “would” as a result of the invoice would wish to get no less than 60 votes within the U.S. Senate to go.

That’s why March Fourth has put forth the next tweet and video prematurely of the march:

Now, it looks as if the individuals within the video could have been utilizing just a bit little bit of sarcasm in what they have been saying, maybe? For instance, there have been the individuals saying issues like “I need to be fearful each time I’m in an open space in a public place,” and, “I need to take into consideration how fully susceptible I’m whereas I’m closing my eyes to wish at my place of worship,” in addition to, “I get pleasure from working towards semi-annual lockdown drills with six 12 months olds who don’t totally perceive what’s occurring.” Then there was the man who acknowledged in a Michael Douglas-like voice, “I like going to the flicks and making a psychological observe of each exit within the theater to plan my escape,” and the lady with the guitar dead-panning, “I hope that our set is interrupted by loud percussive sounds that trigger the viewers to scream in horror and run for his or her lives.” And what concerning the man who declared, “I need to consider this dumpster as hiding place for my child,” as a result of what may very well be extra pleasant than a kid-in-a-dumpster?

Subsequent, every of oldsters stated that the liberty to expertise every of these “fantastic” issues have been causes not to march on September 22. Talking of freedom, a person standing in entrance of an American flag within the video emphasised, “I need to have fun our nation’s freedom by worrying that I’ll find yourself bleeding out on the pavement whereas being trampled by terrified parade goers.” The video then proceeded to show a collage of individuals chiming in with, “I like that anybody can simply entry weapons of destruction, weapons of conflict, designed to kill the best variety of individuals within the least period of time.” The entire thing concluded with the phrases, “On September 22, we’re marching on the U.S. Capitol to ban assault weapons,” adopted by the query “why” and the reply, “There’s no good purpose to not.”

Yeah, it might form of good if all the issues talked about within the video didn’t truly occur not too long ago. However hiding in dumpsters, bleeding on pavements, having to plan escapes, conducting lockdown drills, and screaming in horror have change into all to frequent within the U.S. That’s led to repeated calls to do greater than nothing about stopping mass shootings, which, in flip, prompted Cicilline to draft H.R. 1808.

H.R. 1808 isn’t a totally new concept. Fairly the opposite. From 1994 to 2004, our nation truly had an assault weapons ban for ten years after being signed into regulation by then-President Invoice Clinton. The regulation was allowed to lapse in 2004 and was by no means re-enacted, regardless of research displaying that mass capturing deaths had decreased in the course of the ban. One such examine was published in the American Journal of Surgery in 2022 whereas one other was published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery in 2019. So an assault weapons ban may very well be form of a let’s-try-something-that-has-worked-before-unless-someone-can-come-up-with-something-better scenario. Oh and in case you are questioning why there haven’t been extra research on how one can stop gun violence, the U.S. Congress had restricted funding for gun violence analysis for over twenty years, as I lined for Forbes in 2019.

Scientific proof could help the re-enactment of such a ban however you know the way a lot varied political leaders hearken to actual science today. The Home vote H.R. 1808 was a little bit of a political celebration in the united statesA. scenario. It fell largely alongside celebration strains with 217 largely Democrats in favor and 213 largely Republicans opposed. Solely two Republicans and 5 Democrats crossed celebration strains within the vote. The invoice now could be within the arms of the U.S. Senate the place it’s probably going to be doomed ought to an identical celebration divide be maintained. Once more the invoice would wish no less than 60 votes to go the Senate, which might imply no less than 10 Republicans must vote for the invoice. So the invoice is definitely not out of the woulds but.

So March Fourth could also be going through an uphill march. Kitty Brandtner based March Fourth two days following the after the mass capturing at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. That capturing left seven individuals useless and 48 others wounded. The shooter had used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle with three 30-round magazines to fireplace 83 pictures. 9 days after the capturing March Fourth held a march in Washington, DC, that included survivors from the Highland Park mass capturing in addition to different mass shootings such because the one in Uvalde, Texas. Sadly, today it’s not tough to search out survivors and relations of victims of mass shootings within the U.S. Since then, members of March Fourth have been assembly with members of Congress and the White Home to advocate for a ban on assault weapons.

America clearly has a gun violence drawback, with already over 31,000 gun violence deaths in 2022 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Healthcare researchers and professionals have been clamoring for extra to be performed about this continued bloodshed, as I reported for Forbes on August 2. Once more scientific research have proven drops in mass shootings in the course of the earlier ten-year assault weapon ban whereas these against such a ban have probably not supplied a lot scientific counter-evidence. One factor’s for positive the U.S. can’t actually go forth with the present scenario and anticipate gun violence to easily march away.