Gun Control Rally Draws Angry Crowds To Grand Army Plaza

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — The elected officials who gathered to light candles and mourn those lost in mass shootings after three attacks in Brownsville, California, Ohio and Texas claimed more than 30 lives in two weeks had a united message.

"We are sick and tired of prayers and vigils," New York State Attorney General Letitia James told the crowds who came to Grand Army Plaza Monday night.

"Thoughts and prayers will never be enough when innocent people are killed."

James was joined by hoards of elected officials — including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — some of whom grew hoarse in their cries for stricter gun control laws that followed a violent weekend during which 30 people were killed by mass shooters.

A gunman with an AK-47 killed 21 people and injured 26 others at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Saturday morning. And on Sunday, a gunman in body armor killed nine people, among them his sister, and wounded 27 others outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio.

"Congress people, I don't give a s--- about your re-election," said Williams. "People are dying, real people."

The shootings came two weeks after a Brownsville gunman killed one man and injured 11 others at the annual Old Timers Day festival and a shooter claimed three lives at garlic festival in Gilroy, California.

President Donald Trump said Monday morning he supported strengthening background checks for gun buyers and suggested it should be linked to immigration reform in a tweet.

"Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks," the president wrote. "We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!"

But Ocasio-Cortez took the president to task for a stance on immigration she blamed for the shooting in Texas Saturday morning.

"We need to address the immigration rhetoric in this country because it is directly responsible for what happened in El Paso," said Ocasio-Cortez. "White supremacy is an international terrorism problem."

Ocasio-Cortez called on the Senate to pass bipartisan bills approved in the House of Representatives that would expand mandatory background checks, close the "Charleston loophole," which allows some gun sales to go through without background checks, and prevent proven abusive domestic partners from buying a gun.

"Fixing this is about fixing out laws," she said. "It's also about fixing our culture. We're gonna have to go deep."