Kilili on shootings: ‘We need to stop deaths’

Saipan Tribune — Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) grieves the lives lost in what is dubbed as the “deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history,” while calling for legislation to prevent a repeat.

Sablan, through a statement from his office, reportedly joined other Democratic Caucus members on the steps of the U.S. Capitol last Thursday to mourn the victims of gun violence and “demand action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun deaths across America.”

“Every time a mass shooting like this occurs we offer prayers and condolences; we lower the flag to half-mast; but we never seem to take action to try to prevent these killings from happening again,” said Sablan.

He added that the U.S. Congress should “enact commonsense legislation,” similar to the bipartisan King-Thompson legislation that strengthened background checks with the intent to keep guns out of the “wrong hands.”

According to Sablan, almost 12,000 people in the U.S. die from gun violence.

“It is an epidemic. We need to stop the deaths,” he said.

The U.S. just last Sunday evening experience its deadliest mass shooting to date at the Las Vegas strip, where the suspect, Stephen Paddock, opened fire with several military-grade assault rifles on a nearby crowd of about 22,000 concertgoers about 500 yards away.

Paddock took the lives of at least 59 people and injured 527.