My fellow pediatric critical care physicians and I have dedicated our careers to improving the health and safety of children. I’ve been a physician for 20 years, practicing pediatric critical care for the last 14 years. I have worked through the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009-10 and through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I have cried with countless parents when their child was critically ill or injured. Thankfully, I have cared for only a few children with gunshot wounds.

Earlier this week, I received the scariest work call of my career. It forced me to reckon with the reality that at some point I may be faced with treating multiple victims of a mass shooting event.

There were reports of an active shooter at an area high school and I was asked if I was able to help with a mass casualty situation. I said yes without hesitation. An hour passed before it was confirmed to be part of a hoax perpetrated on several area schools. I spent that hour running through scenarios to prepare myself and increase the chance that I could save lives.

This July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Assault Weapons Ban legislation, which would prohibit the purchase and manufacture of new assault weapons and large capacity magazines. The bill does not require surrender of previously purchased weapons or magazines. The U.S. Senate has not yet voted on the bill.

Assault weapons are semi-automatic and more powerful than standard firearms. This leads to more destructive injuries, akin to what is seen on the battlefields during war. When assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are used in mass shootings in our schools, movie theaters, places of worship and grocery stores, there are more rounds fired, more devastating injuries and more fatalities.

I urge you to contact Sens. Collins and King and ask them to support the Assault Weapons Ban. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, and American Pediatric Surgical Association all support it. Two thirds of Americans support the ban. With so many people and groups behind the assault weapons ban we need our lawmakers to support it.

Next month I am going to Washington, D.C., along with other physicians from Maine and around the country. We are traveling with March Fourth, a nonprofit advocacy group with the sole goal of securing a federal ban on assault weapons.

March Fourth was formed in the days after the Highland Park, Ill., July 4 parade shooting. We are meeting with, among others, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to advocate for passage of a federal ban on the sale of assault weapons. I hope that our efforts are successful at garnering support for such a logical way to reduce the destructiveness of gun violence in our communities.

Will the Assault Weapons Ban prevent all mass shootings? No. Will it end firearm violence? No. Will it make a difference? Yes. In the decade that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was in place the number of mass shooting deaths decreased. If the ban had been reauthorized in 2004, it is estimated that hundreds of people would still be alive. Hundreds of people who are missed daily by their friends and family would still be with us.

More than half of firearms used in mass shootings are purchased legally. About 1 in 3 weapons used in a mass shootings are purchased in the month before the attack. The Assault Weapons Ban could interrupt this pattern, where individuals who are bent on committing horrific acts of violence can legally obtain firearms and high capacity magazines and carry out attacks that were once unthinkable. A ban on assault weapons will help do what I’ve committed my career to doing: It will save lives.

There wasn’t an active shooter in Maine this week. Let’s work together so there is not one tomorrow.