Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering succinctly made the case for getting combat weapons out of civilian hands, two weeks after her town was rocked with a mass shooting at a July 4th parade, with 7 killed and 46 others wounded. Despite having attempted suicide in 2019 and despite police having seized knives and other weapons from him that same year, Illinois State Police approved the Highland shooter, now aged 21, for a firearms permit, and he passed four background checks when buying firearms in 2020 and 2021. The shooter used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle with three 30-round magazines, and fired a total of 83 shots into the crowds.
In a senate committee hearing, Mayor Rotering said:
"We know that there are mental health issues in other countries throughout this world.
“We know that there are troubled people who are inclined towards violence. What's the differentiating factor? Combat weapons and access to civilians. There's no place for these weapons. I appreciate and share, deep concern about the gun violence issues in the city of Chicago and all of our nation's large cities and frankly elsewhere. But at the end of the day, today's hearing is about how do we reduce mass shootings, we reduce mass shootings by getting rid of combat weapons in civilian hands.”
KLOBUCHAR: Well said, thank you.
