HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — After a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens firing 83 shots in less than a minute from an assault rifle at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, quickly pushed a ban on military weapons through the House of Representatives.
As the legislation awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, Schneider said additional laws are needed to reduce gun violence from mass shootings to suicides after five people were gunned down at a Colorado Springs, Colorado, nightclub and seven at a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart in late November.
“You can keep on going,” Schneider said after, recounting the shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery store and at a school in Uvalde, Texas in May, Highland Park in July and the two last month. “There’s El Paso, Pulse, Sandy Hook, Parkland. Each has become an icon of its own.”
Schneider is advocating to get gun safety laws through Congress, while state legislators from northeast Lake County plan a renewed push for a statewide assault weapon ban before the current legislative sessions end in early January.
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, are building on a surge of support for an assault weapon ban after the July 4 massacre to make it law next month, while Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering now champions the effort nationally.
When he learned about the Colorado Springs shooting at a nightclub catering to the LBGTQ community, Schneider said he was moved as he realized a place people once felt was a safe haven became another synonym for gun violence.
“These are horrible tragedies and a senseless loss of life at the hands of an individual who sought revenge or retribution, grabbed a gun and killed people,” he said.
With widespread support across the country for universal background checks before an individual can purchase a gun — the House approved the legislation in March of last year — as well as an assault weapon ban, Schneider said it is a matter of public safety.
“There is not one single act which will solve all of the challenges we face, but these will save lives,” he said. “Safety is the responsibility of everyone in Congress, no matter who has the gavels,” he added referring to the coming Republican majority in the next session.
If U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Springfield, has his way, the senators will modify the filibuster rule to make it much harder for a minority to block a vote on the two House bills. He would modify the 60-vote rule to end a filibuster.
Durbin communications director Emily Hampsten said the senator would require his colleagues who oppose legislation to talk continuously in opposition, rather than make one click on a computer to prevent a vote. He said he favored the approach as recently as January.
Proposed assault weapon ban legislation was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly last year, with two supporters each for the Senate and House versions. Within a week of the Highland Park shooting, there were 45 more in the House and 13 in the Senate.
The legislature was not in session July 4, and remained in recess until the veto session began in late November and ended Thursday. Johnson and Mayfield said they plan to do everything they can make assault weapons illegal during the lame duck session early next year, before the 103rd General Assembly takes over Jan. 11.
“We are going to get it done,” Johnson said. “Assault weapons are weapons of war. The number one cause of death among young people is gun violence. That’s totally unacceptable. This is a public health crisis. Children need to grow up to become adults and live a full life.”
Mayfield also considers gun violence a public health issue. She said the current proposed legislation needs tweaking to protect police officers who may have to go to people’s homes to take assault weapons from individuals who already own them.
“It’s easy to take a gun from someone who doesn’t have it,” Mayfield said. “How do we protect police officers who have to retrieve (assault weapons) from people who still possess them.”
Just as Mayfield and Johnson label gun carnage a public health crisis, Rotering said it is a human rights violation infringing on people’s freedom who live “in fear of random gun violence.” The United States is the only “civilized” nation where civilians can own “weapons of war,” she said.
“Many American mayors worry that it’s a not a matter of if, but when, their communities will be hit by gun violence,” Rotering said. “It’s a human rights violation, and it needs to end. Every day that passes without impactful legislative action increases the risk that another American city will suffer the pain and loss that Highland Park continues to experience.”
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