Every day, 100 Americans are shot and killed and hundreds more are wounded, and thousands more bear the emotional pain caused by this violence.

I shouldn’t have to say any more than that to convince every American, and every American lawmaker, that we have a crisis of gun violence.

100 people are killed with guns every day.

We have all become too used to hearing the phrase “there’s been another mass shooting.” If we are not free to go to a concert, or to worship, or to send our children to school, or go to the movies, or to a mall, or to a grocery store, or even to walk down the streets of our neighborhoods without fear of gun violence, then we have a crisis. This is more than mass shootings; in recent weeks, gun violence has devastated Baltimore, Gilroy, Canoga Park, Newport News, Brooklyn and El Paso. AND LONG ISLAND. This is a public health crisis that demands urgent action.

And our lawmakers should be doing everything in their power to address this crisis and keep us safe. Yet Congress has done nothing.

When the federal government refuses to act, it’s up to the state to take action. Thankfully, here in NY we elected many gun sense champions to our state government, and this year they passed nine new gun laws, putting New York at the forefront of gun violence prevention policies. I would like thank each and every one of them for putting our safety first.

I’d also like to thank our federal representatives here in Nassau County—Tom Suozzi, Kathleen Rice, and Peter King—for being willing to buck the gun lobby and vote for stronger gun laws.

We should all be free to live without the fear of being shot. No one law can stop all gun violence, but there’s so much more we can do to keep our families safe. The House of Representatives has already passed a bill to require background checks on all gun sales. Now, the Senate must act on background checks and pass a strong Red Flag bill.

We have no other choice. Because 100 people are killed with guns every day.