We were all horrified when a man opened fire at the Highland Park Independence Day parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens more.

But more than four months later, the Illinois General Assembly gaveled in and out of their first week back in Springfield after the election — and no action was taken to ban these weapons of war from our streets. 

Meanwhile, Illinois leads the nation in the number of people killed or injured in mass shootings, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive this year. Number one.

That’s wholly unacceptable. 

Before the 103^rd General Assembly takes the oath of office in January, the 102^nd must do their job. Lives are on the line as we allow these weapons of war to roam our streets freely.

A vast majority of U.S. adults — 71 percent — want stronger gun laws, and more than two-thirds of Americans support a ban on assault rifles, up 20% from just four years ago. Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, 57 state representatives from both parties, and 17 state senators support it, too.

So why hasn’t it happened? Why are we still waiting for our elected officials to turn this outrage into actual legislation? The governor noted the power of a familiar foe: “There is still the powerful Illinois State Rifle Association, which is a subset of the National Rifle Association, that’s had a lot of influence over many years,” he said. 

Personally, I think it’s time for Illinois officials to do their jobs and take the initiative to maintain public safety. State leaders should start the new year by addressing the urgent threat of gun violence and passing a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. These are military-grade weapons that only exist to make shootings more deadly — to kill as efficiently as possible. 

This fatal flaw in our laws is only getting worse year by year. An investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ and NPR found that recoveries of extended magazines and auto sear-equipped handguns have skyrocketed in recent years. What’s worse, so have the number of victims of mass shootings. 

We lost 41 Illinoisans in mass shootings this year, and more than 240 were injured in these preventable tragedies. Not just in Chicago or Highland Park, but also in Crest Hill, Decatur, East Saint Louis, Elgin, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, Romeoville, Wheeling, and Yorkville. 

I’m only being realistic when I say the danger of gun violence is growing by the day. We must finally say enough is enough.

While the pain continues to grow in our communities, I am hopeful that there is momentum building behind our campaign to Halt The Assault. 

Mayors like Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot and Highland Park’s Nancy Rotering have called for a statewide ban on these weapons of war. Counties like Cook, DuPage and Lake have passed bipartisan measures to support an assault weapons ban — demonstrating that support that spans political ideology throughout the suburbs. Even historically Republican cities like Naperville have banned local sales of assault weapons.

While some state Republicans have repeatedly fought against meaningful gun reform legislation, a key leader announced his support of an assault weapons ban. “People will say ‘this doesn’t do anything,’ but if it makes it more difficult for somebody who has bad intention from getting access to one of those military-style weapons …  I’m fine with that and I think that’s good,” Republican State Representative Jim Durkin said recently.

A typical AR-15 bullet speeds through the air almost three times faster — and creates a great deal more devastation to the fragile human body — than a 9mm bullet from a handgun, a trauma physician wrote in a 2018 Atlantic article. “The high-velocity bullet… does not have to actually hit an artery to damage it and cause catastrophic bleeding. Exit wounds can be the size of an orange,” the article notes.

This madness must come to an end — not sometime in the near future… as soon as humanly possible. We cannot afford to wait any longer when lives are at stake.

–Kathleen Sances is the President and CEO of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC (G-PAC), the state’s leading gun violence advocacy organization

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