Duckworth Meets with Doctors & Survivors of Highland Park Massacre Advocating to Get Weapons of War Off Our Streets

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with a group of Highland Park doctors who are both her constituents and members of March Fourth, a gun safety advocacy non-profit, to discuss the need to end the sale of weapons of war at the federal level. Some of these doctors were also survivors of the Highland Park Fourth of July Parade Massacre. Duckworth is both a cosponsor and advocate of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021. Photos from today’s meeting are available here.

“Today, I met with both doctors and survivors of the Highland Park Massacre and, once again, I heard the same call—the same plea—I’ve heard from so many other constituents and survivors of mass shootings across our nation: we need to get weapons of war off our streets,” said Duckworth. “For Highland Park, for Uvalde, for Buffalo, for Chicago and for every other community terrorized by senseless gun violence, we need to suspend the filibuster and act to end the sale of new weapons of war so we can help stop another day of patriotism, another math class or another trip to the grocery store from turning into a living nightmare. Enough was enough a long time ago.”

Duckworth is a fierce advocate for getting weapons of war off our streets. Following the Highland Park Fourth of July Parade Massacre, Duckworth joined mothers from the Highland Park area, as well as survivors of Highland Park and other mass shootings like Uvalde and Parkland, at a rally on Capitol Hill to call on Congress to do more to address our nation’s senseless gun violence epidemic. That same day, Duckworth met with residents and heard their personal experiences from the shooting while they discussed additional gun safety reforms that need to be enacted to help keep our communities safe, such as ending the sale of weapons of war. Two days later, Duckworth made an impassioned call for these gun safety reforms on the Senate floor. The week after that, Duckworth also delivered opening remarks to a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on protecting our communities from mass shootings where she emphasized that our nation’s gun violence epidemic is now the leading cause of death for young Americans and implored her colleagues to support additional commonsense gun safety reforms.

Duckworth supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law to help crack down on straw purchasing, expands background checks for buyers under 21 years of age, takes steps to close the “boyfriend loophole,” supports state red flag laws, and offers billions in funding for counseling, mental health, and trauma support for victims of gun violence. While the bipartisan legislation was a starting point for gun reform, Duckworth continues to call for additional reform, such as ending the sale of weapons of war.

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