Gov. Pritzker After Shooting: 'End This Plague of Gun Violence'

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) issued a statement after the horrific shooting at a July 4th parade in Highland Park near Chicago, calling for an end to the “plague of gun violence.”

Released shortly after the shooting that left six people dead and at least 24 injured, the governor said he will be praying for those who lost loved ones and for the law enforcement officials tasked with bringing the shooter to justice.

“Today, I ask all Illinoisans to pray for the families who have been devastated by the evil unleashed this morning in Highland Park, for those who have lost loved ones and for those who have been injured,” he said. “I also ask that we all pray for our first responders at all levels of government who are actively working to bring the suspect into custody.”

“There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community,” he continued. “There are no words for the kind of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes, their dreams, their futures.”

Pritzker concluded his statement with a call to end the “terror of rampant gun violence in our country” while stopping short of any gun control policy prescriptions.

“But grief will not bring the victims back, and prayers alone will not put a stop to the terror of rampant gun violence in our country,” he concluded. “I will stand firm with Illinoisans and Americans: we must – and we will – end this plague of gun violence.”

As Breitbart News previously reported, the local jurisdiction of Highland Park already “banned ‘assault weapons’ and magazines with more than ten rounds of ammunition” and that the “U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the law in 2015.” Legal analyst Ken Klukowski of Breitbart News wrote at the time of the decision that Highland Park “has a long track record of opposing citizens exercising the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms” through the banning of so-called “assault weapons.”

“Assault weapons are not an actual class of firearms,” Klukowski argued. “The term is often confused with ‘assault rifles,’ which are a class of firearms. But for most such bans, ‘assault weapons’ excludes some types of assault rifles and includes guns that are not assault rifles.”