Background info:

After the school shooting in Parkland, FL, Senator Grassley introduced a bill called the EAGLES Act, which utilizes the Secret Service in identifying school aged children who could be a school violence risk, as well as increased training for schools to prevent gun violence. This is a form of victim blaming, since schools would not face attacks if laws were made to keep assault weapons out of the hands of violent people. It also does not prevent gun suicides, the leading gun deaths, or other gun violence outside of school buildings.

We will deliver this petition to Senator Grassley when we can arrange a meeting at one of his Iowa offices. 

Petition

Senator Grassley:

We, your Iowan constituents, can see that you have put more effort in than some legislators to attempt to end gun violence, but we implore you to take decisive action with sweeping legislation that will address the problem beyond the walls of schools. The EAGLES Act that you introduced is basically a red flag law for school-aged children, even though your support for red flag laws for adults has been iffy at best. And, any proposed law that focuses on strengthening security at schools as well as training children and teachers, is MORE OF THE SAME. Any school teacher or student can tell you we already spend a disconcerting amount of time learning how to avoid getting killed at school. If you really do grieve the lives lost, and if you really do desire to protect our children, then we implore you to introduce or support legislation that actually addresses gun violence.

No matter how much our schools are turned into prisons, violent people with assault weapons WILL find a way to murder innocents. We need to keep guns out of the hands of people who would harm humans with them and assault weapons out of civilian hands, PERIOD. Besides, protecting schools will not prevent gun deaths by suicide - the highest amount of gun deaths - or gun violence at:

• the grocery store
• the movie theater
• churches
• music festivals
• our streets

just to name a few places where gun violence has happened recently.

We are tired of hearing the false narrative that criminals will find guns no matter how many laws we have. THAT IS JUST FALSE. The United States far exceeds any other high income country in gun deaths, and if we look at those country’s gun laws, we can see that in many cases, guns are not widely available to their citizens. But even Austria, which is seen as the loosest on gun laws in Europe, has more gun violence prevention than many US states.

As the constituents of Iowa’s 4th district, we are asking for the following common sense federal laws (as researched and drafted by March For Our Lives) to prevent gun violence:

1. A ban or tight regulations on assault weapons. They were designed to kill the highest amount of PEOPLE in the lowest amount of time without being a fully automatic weapon. There is no need for them to be in the hands of civilians. We’ve decided as a society to highly regulate machine guns, for instance. It is time to get out of denial about the dangers assault weapons pose to our society,
2. A ban on high capacity magazines, placing the cap at 10 or 15 rounds of ammunition,
3. A required national licensing and registry system that promotes responsible gun ownership, including background checks, in-person interviews, and rigorous gun safety training. License renewal would be required annually,
4. A limit of one firearm purchase per month,
5. Policies to disarm gun owners who pose a harm risk to themselves or others,
6. Mandatory 10 day waiting periods, when purchasing fire arms, to prevent homicides and suicides,
7. A prohibition on any and all online firearm and ammunition sales or transfers, including gun parts,
8. A requirement to safely store firearms, including implementing national standards for locking devices on guns,
9. A requirement to report guns that are lost or stolen to local law enforcement within 72 hours,
10. Ensure that firearms are expressly regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and
11. A national gun buy-back and disposal program.

We say NO MORE gun violence, and we mean it. We refuse to hand this issue over to a little girl who had to lay in her friend's blood and wait over an hour for the police to arrive.