Americans have appetite for action

Six-year-old Stephen Romero, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar and 25-year-old Trevor Irby were killed by bullets from an assault rifle at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Within the week, 30 more innocents were killed in mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton - murdered by bullets from semi-automatic rifles.

Video games, the media and mental illness did not murder and maim the victims of these mass shootings - all were victims of bullets from assault weapons.

Our president and our Republican Congress are more concerned about pandering to the National Rifle Association than with the safety and concerns of their constituents. Our president says there is no "political appetite" to ban assault weapons, which have the capacity to quickly slaughter 20 first-graders and scores of high school and college students, worshippers, shoppers, people out having a good time on a Saturday night.

The appetite of the American public calls for action on gun violence.

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act, a House bill introduced in January and passed in February, languishes in the Senate graveyard of House-passed bills, along with H.R. 1, which would strengthen election security and many other bills passed soon after our do-nothing Republican House fell to the Democrats - all bills meant to make our country safer and ensure a healthy future. Mitch McConnell will not allow the Senate to vote on these important bills.

We can't wait until November 2020. We must demand our Congress take the necessary actions now to pass bills that address our most urgent concerns and to check our president who foments intolerance and divisiveness.

Jane Cox

Wheaton