Hillary Clinton on Monday expressed her grief over the lives lost in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history and tweeted a call to fight efforts by the National Rifle Association to loosen the nation’s gun laws.
At least 58 people were killed and over 500 have been sent to nearby hospitals after a gunman opened fire during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas late Sunday night.
The former secretary of state and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate sent out several tweets about the “cold-blooded massacre,” and told followers that it was time for action, saying that “our grief isn’t enough.”
“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,” she said.
Clinton referred to the push by the NRAssociation and Republican allies in the House for a bill that would make it easier to purchase silencers. Currently, there’s a waiting period for buying silencers that can be as much as nine months or more. Also, buyers must submit fingerprints when purchasing silencers.
“We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again,” Clinton said.
Many eyewitnesses to the Las Vegas shooting recounted the horrifying sounds of gunfire that caused them to drop to the ground or flee. As Clinton noted, the death toll could have been higher had the gunman been using a silencer.
President Donald Trump, in his initial reaction to the shooting, sent out one tweet offering his sympathy for victims. Late Monday morning, speaking from the White House, Trump condemned the attack as “as act of pure evil,” praised first responders at the scene, called for national unity and reiterated his condolences for the shooting victims and their relatives. But he made no call for any sort of legislative response.
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