The African American Mayors Association condemned a mass shooting during a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Ill., in which a gunman took the lives of seven people.
“I join my colleagues across the country to offer our collective prayers and condolences for the families of the deceased and injured, and the greater Highland Park community,” said Little Rock, Ark., Mayor Frank Scott, president of the association for the 500 Black mayors throughout the country. “Unfortunately, this was far from the only shooting in our country over the holiday weekend. At least a dozen other cities reported shootings yesterday, including a mass shooting just an hour away from Highland Park on the South Side of Chicago.
“No community is immune to the uniquely American scourge of gun violence,” he said. “America’s mayors are facing an uphill battle when we try supplementing federal regulations with local gun violence prevention measures. More must be done in our cities and at all levels of government to stop this madness. Not after November. Not by the end of summer. Now.”
Scott said the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, just signed into law by President Biden will do a lot to stop gun violence.
“It is a significant step forward in addressing the gun violence epidemic in the U.S. but it was just one step,” the mayor said. “The African American Mayors Association is united in calling for bans on high-capacity magazines and ghost guns and cracking down on manufacturers of unserialized ‘buy-build-shoot’ kits.”