DRIVE AT INTERVIEW — JEN PAULIUKONIS – PAUL-EE-YOU-KOE-NIS — PRESIDENT of MARYLANDERS TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE

Statement by Jen Pauliukonis, President of
Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, On Orlando Shooting

Our hearts and thoughts are with the families suffering after the horrific tragedy in the club in Orlando. We are angered and frustrated that once again someone was able to legally obtain an assault weapon and use it against dozens of innocent people. The AR-15 is a weapon of war, and no citizen needs this type of weaponry for personal use.

In Maryland, we passed an assault weapons ban and limit on magazine capacity in 2013. This reasonable and life-saving law is currently being challenged in court by the gun lobby. The tragedy in Orlando again shows us the dangers of assault weapons and why the US Court of Appeals needs to uphold this life-saving law.

According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, there was a decrease in the use of assault weapons used in crime during the duration of the national Assault Weapons Ban (1994-2004). This included a limit on magazine capacity to no more than 10 rounds in a magazine.  As we see in numerous mass shooting, innocents are able to get away or incapacitate the shooter when a magazine has to be changed. An endless barrage of bullets is impossible to stop. Congress allowed this law to lapse, and it is their moral obligation to reinstate these provisions.

Some extreme opponents of reasonable gun violence prevention measures, like the Assault Weapons Ban, will try to place the blame of the atrocity in Orlando on religious extremism and hate. There will always be hate in this world, but we do not need to enable someone filled with hate by allowing anyone and everyone in this country to easily purchase an AR-15, a weapon intended for the battlefield.