Senators Vent Their Frustration About Guns

The cycle can feel numbingly familiar: mass shooting, followed by politicians offering their thoughts and prayers, followed by others demanding stricter gun laws. So it is hardly a surprise that lawmakers from California responded to the mass shooting at a high school in Florida last week by quickly calling for more gun-control laws.

Still, the comments from Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein make the frustration clear.

Speaking on MSNBC last week, Harris described looking at autopsy photos from shootings during her time as a prosecutor, suggesting that perhaps lawmakers should do the same.

“When you see the effect of this extreme violence on a human body and especially the body of a child, maybe it will shock some people into understanding,” she said, adding: “We cannot tolerate a society and live in a country with any level of pride when our babies are being slaughtered.”

Feinstein has taken to Twitter to renew her call to support an assault weapons ban, which she has co-sponsored with other Democrats.

“How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our children,” she wrote the day of the shooting.

“A generation of students has grown up with active shooter drills as the norm. They are saying ‘enough’ and I couldn’t be more proud,” she wrote Sunday.

She also said she would introduce a bill that would require all gun purchases to be limited to those who are at least 21 years old.

“If you can’t buy a handgun or a bottle of beer, you shouldn’t be able to buy an AR-15,” she said.

Those calling for stricter gun laws took to the street over the long weekend, too, with hundreds of women with Moms Demand Action protesting in Pershing Square in Los Angeles and a smaller protest in Bakersfield.