Stabenow calls thoughts and prayers 'hollow' after another mass shooting

A lot of politicians are offering "thoughts and prayers" in the wake of the Parkland massacre but the victims and their families want action. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow says it's time to act.

As we have seen too many times before in the wake of a mass shooting lawmakers are making their voices known on gun laws and mental health solutions. This week, Stabenow took some time while in Detroit to do exactly that.

"Having 18 school shootings in six weeks at the beginning of 2018 has got to be completely unacceptable," she said, hoping the latest school shooting lights a fire under her colleagues."We need to act. Saying thoughts and prayers are pretty hollow at this point."

The Democratic Senator is asking for both sides of the aisle to consider what she calls "common sense gun laws."

"Simple, common sense things need to happen like closing the gun show loopholes on background checks or not allowing these inexpensive bump stocks to be bought to be able to turn a regular rifle into an automatic weapon," she said.

Stabenow is referring to the device used by the Las Vegas shooter last October that modifies a semi-automatic weapon to fire faster. The gun show loophole she's referring to deals with private sales of firearms.

"I grew up in the small town of Clare, up north, my whole family's involved in hunting and practices safe gun ownership - that's not what this is about," Stabenow said.

The accused shooter was undergoing mental health treatment prior to the Wednesday shooting. Stabenow says that's another area that needs attention.

"I'm involved in efforts to create fully funded behavioral health centers in all of our communities, just like we have physical health centers," she said.

The Senator would also support putting more trained personnel in schools to help identify students before they turn to violence.

"The most important thing is we've got to act and just stop talking."

Whether anything will be done remains to be seen.