Last Sunday at 10:08PM, Stephen Paddock opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel on a music festival below for ten minutes leaving 59 people dead and 500 injured.

This is not the first time that the United States has experienced such loss. In fact, there have been 341 mass shootings and 477 deaths since the beginning of the year (https://www.massshootingtracker.org/data). And although the United States makes up less than 5% of the world’s population, it holds 31% of global mass shooters (http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/index.html).

These statistics are troubling, and yet politicians are always putting off the gun debate by saying that “now is not a time or place” or “right now, we should focus on the families.” But why is now not the time to reform our gun laws? Because of political gridlocks and the second amendment, policy makers are not able to implement massive reform policy. However, we can plea for moderacy.

An example is regulating bump stocks. Bump stocks modify rifles to fire at a higher rate by “bumping” the rifle back so that the shooter only has to hold down the trigger. The NRA issued a statement on Thursday supporting tighter regulation on bump stocks, and many members of Congress both right and left of the isle agree. Small wins like these will eventually lead to a safer America in which we don’t have to worry every time we go into a movie theater, concert, or school, while still respecting the second amendment.

So I urge everyone to email or call our congressional leaders and ask for their support on regulating bump stocks. It is a great right to own a gun in the United States, but no one needs a machine designed to kill many people in a short amount of time. We need a plea for moderacy.

Congressman Keith Rothfus

https://rothfus.house.gov/email-keith

(202) 225-2065

Senator Bob Casey Jr.

https://www.casey.senate.gov/contact

202-224-6324

Senator Pat Toomey

https://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact

202-224-4254