It is good to send thoughts and prayers to the families and victims of the Minneapolis Annunciation Catholic Church shooting on Aug. 27, as we should for the all the victims of shootings. On Sept. 28, the shooter at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near Flint, Michigan, used an assault rifle in killing four and wounding eight victims.

We need action in addition to prayers to reduce the lethality of these types of attacks. The mother of 9-year-old Vivian St. Clair, who survived multiple bullet wounds at the Annunciation shooting, put it bluntly: “Who the hell is going to do something? Who’s going to make meaningful change and take tangible steps to break the cycle?”

It is way past time to renew the 1994 federal assault weapons ban.

The Annunciation church shooting took place during a Mass attended by the students and faculty of its Catholic school. The gunman shot through the church windows with a rifle. Two children died and 21 people were injured, including 18 children. The gunfire lasted only minutes, and 116 rifle rounds and three shotgun shell casings were recovered from the scene.

Buried in the news of this horrific school shooting, just a day before the Annunciation attack, another mass shooting also occurred in Minneapolis, behind a high school, injuring six and killing one on Aug. 26.

Have we become numb to the mass shootings killing hundreds and injuring thousands that have occurred over the past 20 years at concerts, restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, churches, synagogues? School shootings have become particularly heinous and frequent.

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