Illinois welcomed the morning of July 4th.

A little humid, to be sure, but that's typical for a Midwestern summer. Families from all over Chicagoland lined the streets, clad in red, white, and blue, ready to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this country.

I prepared for the parade in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and also in Evanston that afternoon.

Then the unthinkable happened.

The horror of gun violence struck Highland Park, Illinois, claiming the lives of seven innocent parade participants and injuring dozens more.

As in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, once again someone with an AR-15 style assault weapon took the lives of our friends, family, and neighbors.

As I watched one of the videos taken during the parade attack, I noticed the rhythm of the bullets; the last time I heard a weapon fire so quickly on July 4 was the Iraq War.

Assault weapons like the one used in Highland Park do not belong on our streets; anyone who has ever been in combat carrying an M4 knows the power that these types of firearms have. These are weapons of war and should not be in civilian hands.

The scourge of gun violence is so prevalent in this country that Americans should not have to fear the threat of gun violence every day, whether watching a July 4th parade, sending their children to school, going to the grocery store, the movie theater, church, or just walking down the street.

Shootings happen everywhere in this country, not just in Uvalde, not just in Buffalo, not just in Highland Park. This is a uniquely American crisis that affects every community from Aurora, Illinois to Aurora, Colorado. Low-income and high-income communities, urban centers, suburbs, and rural areas are all affected. Because of the prevalence of gun violence in the U.S., only when a sufficient number of people are killed in a single incident does it receive national coverage.

During the same holiday weekend, the death toll in Chicago further exceeded the devastation in Highland Park.

In the Chicago area, gun violence is so commonplace that such routine deaths do not receive the attention they deserve. Despite the loss of children's lives and the innocence of survivors, we have become numb and desensitized.

It doesn't have to be this way. We have had enough. After Las Vegas was enough. After Orlando was enough. It was enough after Sandy Hook. One life lost to gun violence is one too many. [Last month, we proved that bipartisan compromise on gun safety is possible. For the first time in decades, we have signed into law provisions at the federal level that will keep us safe.

But we cannot stop there. Our lives, and the lives of our children, are at stake. [At the very least, we cannot stop until assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are banned at the federal level.

Because Highland Park has done all the right things. They have banned assault weapons. However, we cannot stop someone from going outside the city limits, purchasing these weapons, and bringing them into a place where residents have already said, "We don't want these weapons." [It is not easy to take action at the federal level. Because Republicans seem to be more interested in cashing checks from the gun lobby than keeping Americans safe.

The Democratic majority in the Senate is too small. And despite their readiness to suspend the filibuster in order to pass life-saving legislation, they do not now have the support they need.

I am terribly angry about this. And I'm sure parents across the country are as well.

The thought of raising two daughters in a country where we have to consider sending them to school with backpacks filled with bulletproof vests is disgusting.

But we cannot give up. It is time to let all elected officials know where we stand on gun reform and that if they are not willing to act in the best interests of their fellow Americans, they are not qualified to hold their office in November.

If you are angry now, you should be. But don't let the memory of yet another national tragedy fade away this sentiment.

For Highland Park is not the first, nor will it be the last. We will gather again soon to mourn the lives wrongfully taken somewhere in this country. We will also wonder what it will take to make a difference.

This difference starts now and will not stop until November 8. We must turn this anger into votes for Democrats who support common sense gun safety reforms on the ballots across the country.

Whether you have never voted in a midterm election or have voted in every midterm election, no matter what, we must turn emotion into action. For the sake of our children. For our communities. For our country.