GOP lawmaker who supports NRA changes his stance to join assault weapon ban as activist Ruby Bridges declares gun control should be the ‘next civil rights movement’
US Rep Brian Mast announced Friday that he supports the assault weapon ban
Mast, a longtime member of the NRA and Army veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan, said he now supports defining what constitutes as an assault rifle
Civil rights activist Ruby Bridges Hall also joined the ban on assault rifles
Hall said the ‘next civil rights movement’ needs to be the assault weapon ban because she doesn’t want to see anymore children killed in school shootings
Nikolas Cruz, 19, is suspected of killing 17 of his former classmates and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14
MINYVONNE BURKE
DAILYMAIL.COM
24 February 2018
A civil rights activist and a Republican lawmaker who supports the National Rifle Association are the latest to join the assault weapon ban.
US Rep Brian Mast, from Florida, write in an op-ed for the New York Times that he is a longtime member of the NRA but wants to see a ban on the sale of assault rifles.
‘If we act now by changing laws surrounding firearms and mental illness, we too can save lives,’ the 37-year-old said.
Mast, an Army veteran who lost both his legs in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb detonated, said the AR-15 19-year-old suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz used to kill 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week was similar to the gun the Army gave him to kill the enemy during war.
‘I cannot support the primary weapon I used to defend our people being used to kill children I swore to defend,’ he said, adding: No firearm is evil. Guns are tools that fulfill the intent of their users, good or bad. But we’ve seen that the rifle of choice for many mass shooters is the AR-15.’
Mast said he supports ‘defining what constitutes an assault or tactical firearm and not allowing them for future purchase — just as we already prohibit the purchase of fully automatic firearms.’
Civil rights activist Ruby Bridges Hall also announced her support of the assault weapon ban on Friday saying that she is distressed by mass shootings happening at US schools.
‘When I think about our babies today and them not being safe in school, I think that should be the next civil rights movement, you know, is to ban the assault weapons so that our babies can be safe,’ she said at a gala in Jackson, Mississippi where she and other civil rights leaders were being honored.
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