BRADY RESPONDS TO MASS SHOOTINGS IN ODESSA, TEXAS,
AND MOBILE, ALABAMA
Washington, D.C., August 31, 2019 — Two mass shootings have injured more than 30 people and killed at least five as Labor Day Weekend kicks off. The incidents are the latest in a recent spike in mass shootings throughout the country, leaving Americans everywhere to once again ask, “where are we safe?”
On Friday evening, gun fire broke out at a high school football game in Mobile, Alabama, injuring at least 10 people and leaving multiple teenage victims in critical condition. The bloodshed continued Saturday afternoon with a mass shooting in West Texas, reported to have begun with a traffic stop. The gun violence prevention organization, Brady, expressed outrage at the violence and the continued inaction of elected leaders.
Brady President, Kris Brown stated,
“Yet again, our communities suffer a mass shooting while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn continue their congressional breaks. Today, it’s in Odessa, Texas. Yesterday it was in Alabama. Before that, it was Dayton, El Paso, Brooklyn, Gilroy, and San Fernando Valley. That’s just in the past month alone, and it doesn’t include the hundreds of other deaths and injuries that never made national headlines. Every single day congressional leaders decide not to act, 100 Americans are killed by guns. What is it going to take for Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and the Senate to act? They need to follow the example set by our leaders in the House and take immediate steps to enact common-sense solutions that we know will end this epidemic.”
Texas, which has recently experienced two high-profile mass shootings, as well as Alabama, have some of the weakest gun laws in the country. Neither state requires background checks on private sales, nor do they have bans on assault weapons or large-capacity magazines. In 2017, Alabama had the second highest gun death rate in the country. Of the 10 deadliest shootings in modern U.S. history, four have taken place in Texas: First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, the University of Texas at Austin, and — less than a month ago — a Walmart in El Paso.
Brady urges law enforcement and media to focus on how the shooters obtained their firearms and if any local or federal laws were broken in the process.
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