Opinion: I’m a former Republican congressman. The latest victims of gun violence in America were failed by my party.

Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July, President Biden said “there is no place in America for this kind of violence.”

On that July day, most Americans claimed to agree with Biden’s sentiment.

Yesterday, at least four people were killed in a Georgia high school shooting, and President Biden said that “students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”

I hope most Americans can also agree with this sentiment by Biden following the Georgia high school massacre.

Political leaders across the country have solemnly repeated the all too familiar meme that shooting victims are “in our thoughts and prayers.” But too often the politicians who utter these words in the wake of the massacre of schoolchildren, the killing of police officers, or mass murders continue to refuse to do anything to prevent these senseless killings. 

Donald Trump was extraordinarily lucky. He was barely grazed by the bullet of the shooter’s AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, but father, husband and local fire chief Corey Comperatore was not so fortunate. While protecting his family from the assassin, Mr. Comperatore was fatally shot in the head.

Corey Comperatore never had a chance.

Neither did the two students and two teachers who died in Georgia yesterday in the nation’s 385th mass shooting this year.

The muzzle velocity of an AR-15 is so extreme that a single shot lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of children.

With the recent Supreme Court decision, a would-be assassin can now add a bump stock to his weapon and increase the number of rounds it can fire from 40 per minute to 400. This weapon was designed for war fighters and that is why it is the choice of mass murderers.

An AR-15 style rifle was used by the gunman in the shooting in Georgia yesterday, according to law enforcement.

An AR-15 style weapon was also used in Aurora, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernardino, California; Sutherland Springs, Texas; Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, in which a total of 154 people were killed. The weapon also kills scores of police officers and death tolls rise every week. 

For decades, elected officials and law enforcement officers have argued that there needs to be a line drawn between firearms that civilians can rightfully own for hunting and self-defense and military weapons that are too lethal to be available to the public.

Donald Trump is not among these public servants. He opposes a ban on lethal military weapons in the hands of civilians. The National Rifle Association was the largest special interest contributor to President Trump’s 2016 election, spending more than $30 million to benefit his campaign. In fact, Trump was in Pennsylvania just three months ago to speak at the NRA’s annual convention, where he promised to expand gun owner rights and “roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment.”  

In 1994, with the support of then-Senator Joe Biden, Congress passed a ban on the sale of assault weapons. This common-sense measure resulted in a 66% reduction in crimes committed with these weapons of war.

Public opinion polls in the early 2000s showed that 75% of Americans supported the reauthorization of the ban, but the law expired in 2004.

In March 2021, widely supported by law enforcement groups, President Biden proposed a new ban on assault weapons following the Atlanta spa shootings and Boulder grocery store massacre, both of which had occurred in the previous week.

On July 29, 2022, the House of Representatives narrowly voted in favor of this important new firearms safety legislation, with 217 in favor to 213 against.

As a Republican elected to protect and safeguard the interests of my constituents, I am ashamed to report that only two Republicans supported this bill in 2022.

Following House passage of this life-saving measure, it went to the Senate. However, Senate Republicans, armed with the power of the filibuster and fortified by NRA campaign contributions, prevented further consideration of the bill until it  expired at the end of the term.

Donald Trump dodged the gunman’s  bullet. Chief Comperatore never had a chance. Neither did the victims at Apalachee High School today. Neither will other innocent Americans, including schoolchildren and police officers, if the NRA’s best friend, Donald Trump, is elected again.

For the sake of these innocent lives, I am doing everything I can to make sure Trump is not elected again.