Some Kansas City Chiefs players demanded more gun control Wednesday after a mass shooting darkened the team’s Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City, Missouri.
At least one attendee died and at least 21 were wounded while three suspects were taken into custody.
While many players offered prayers and concern for the victims, safety Justin Reid prayed for legislators to take action.
“This is SAD man! Kids are being shot and somebody didn’t come home tonight,” Reid wrote on X. “We cannot allow this to be normal. We cannot [allow] ourselves to become numb and chalk it up to ‘just another shooting in America’ and reduce people in statistics and then move on tmrw.
“This is a SERIOUS PROBLEM!! I pray our leaders enact real solutions so our kids’ kids won’t know this violence,” he added.
Defensive end Charles Omenihu also addressed what one person on X called the “elephant in the room.”
“When are we going to fix these gun laws?” he wrote. “How many more people have to die to say enough is enough ? It’s too easy for the wrong people to obtain guns in America and that’s a FACT.”
It was already the 49th mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Tennessee-based gun safety researcher Jonathan M. Metzl offered a critical tip to HuffPost readers looking to enact meaningful change to gun laws this year: vote.
Cries for reform often last mere days after a shooting, Metzl wrote, but gun control advocates need to show their support at the ballot box long after a headline-grabbing tragedy.
H/T Kansas City Star