“We need to be smarter as a country about who has access to what, particularly assault weapons,” said Harris, who was joined by Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and other Democratic politicians. “And we have to take these things seriously. The entire nation needs to understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this could happen anywhere in any peaceful community. And we need to stand together and talk about why it needs to stop.” Earlier in the day, Harris called for the reinstatement of the national assault weapons ban. [ What we know about the mass shooting at a Highland Park Fourth of July parade ] “We have more to do. We have more to do. Congress must have the courage to act and renew the ban on assault weapons,” Harris told a group of educators at the National Education Association conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. “We need common sense gun safety laws. And we need to stop Congress from protecting these gun manufacturers with the shield of liability. Remove it. Remove it.” A few hours later, in a short speech given in the heart of Highland Park, Harris offered his condolences to President Joe Biden. “You know you have an entire nation that cares deeply about you and stands with you. This is an incredibly tight community. I know,” Harris said. “And that person will be brought to justice, but it’s not going to undo what happened. And we’re here for you and we’re by your side.” Hours before Harris visited Highland Park, Gov. JB Pritzker backed a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, while also calling for similar action at the federal level. “We urgently need federal regulation of weapons of war and high-capacity magazines used only for mass murder,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Illinois is not an island, and even with … some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, our state is just as safe as the state with the weakest laws — many of which border Illinois.” Vice President Kamala Harris walks next to Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering at the corner of Green Bay and Central in Highland Park on July 5, 2022, one day after a mass shooting that left 7 dead and more than 30 injured at a parade of the 4th of July in Highland Park. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) The comments from Harris and Pritzker come amid a national debate about mass shootings and gun control efforts. Pritzker’s opponent in the fall, Republican candidate Darren Bailey, a senator from Downstate Xenia, is a staunch gun rights advocate who opposes gun regulations. On Tuesday, Bailey continued to try to avoid comments he made after the shooting when he posted a video on Facebook praying for the victims and law enforcement and saying “let’s go ahead and celebrate” the holiday. Bailey took to Twitter on Tuesday to deflect from that sentiment and urged the public to “commit to better addressing mental health in Illinois and across the nation.” In addition, Bailey also tried to connect the Highland Park parade to the holiday weekend shooting of a 10-year-old boy on Chicago’s South Side, even though Highland Park is an affluent suburb 30 miles north of Chicago. [ These are the victims of the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park ] “My team and I will continue to reach out to law enforcement, members of the public health community and more to find workable solutions to address these issues,” Bailey said. “We will also continue to call for a special (state legislative) session to prioritize our budget to better fund mental health services and law enforcement to ensure public safety is a priority in EVERY community.” State Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who represents Highland Park, said that while funding for mental health can be increased and training to identify troubled youth can be improved, “there are things we still have to find the courage to do, such as banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” “We had police on every corner of the parade,” said Morgan, who was starting to march with his wife and two children when shots rang out. “So having more police officers alone wouldn’t stop it. So what would stop it?’ Recent efforts to ban or restrict the sale and possession of assault weapons in Illinois have failed. Proposals introduced in both the House and Senate in the years since that would have banned assault weapons have not even passed committee. [ Purchase of rifle allegedly used in Highland Park massacre highlights limits of Illinois gun laws ] State Rep. Maura Hirschauer, a Batavia Democrat who helped found a branch of the anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action, introduced legislation in January that, with a few exceptions, would ban the sale or possession of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition. – power supplies. The proposal has not advanced out of committee. The General Assembly last year passed a measure intended to strengthen background checks on gun sales and address issues that allowed people to keep their guns after losing their firearms owner’s identification cards. Hirschauer said it’s time to take more sweeping steps. “We’re taking small bites out of the apple, and we need to take bigger bites out of the apple, and now is the time to do that with an assault weapons ban and a high-capacity magazine ban,” he said. Resistance to tighter gun regulations among Democrats has traditionally come from downstate members, and Hirschchauer said it’s “hard to know” how Monday’s events will affect that dynamic. Ed Sullivan, a contract lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association, said he believes addressing “economic disparities and institutional racism” would be a more effective way to combat violence in the general sense than strengthening gun laws. . Sullivan, a former Republican state representative from Mundelein, also noted that while lawmakers have introduced measures to ban assault weapons over the years, he questioned the effectiveness of that option. “There are lawmakers who have specific ideas about what should happen in gun control, and we certainly respect everyone’s ideas,” Sullivan said. “At the end of the day, we just saw a deranged man not following the law. And so if you ban them in Illinois, there will still be assault weapons, and so the only people that will be affected are law-abiding citizens.” [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
