HAMPTON, Va. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2020 declared firearms to be the leading cause of death among children between one and 19 years old.
Now, following last weekend's assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, lawmakers are once again asking: what can be done, when it comes to guns?
It's the age-old question for which answers seem to be elusive.
Senator Mark Warner came to Hampton Friday to hear from local state-holders.
"This cancer of gun violence feels like, we may go a few weeks, we may go a few months, and then, where am I," he said.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in June declared firearm violence a public health crisis.
One would've been hard-pressed to find anybody to argue with that assertion at the Mary Jackson Neighborhood Center, as Warner held a roundtable on the rise of gun violence.
There, three mayors, a state senator and dozens of civic and law enforcement leaders came together to discuss various local community-based youth intervention programs, and how each of them could benefit from more funding.
For his part, Warner mentioned his hope that maybe --following the shooting of former President Trump by a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle -- now could be the time that Congress finally takes action to curb access to assault weapons.
"This kind of access to firearms, how much more of this kind of violence do we have to see before we say, this doesn't happen in other nations, and it should not happen in America," he said.
The nation did have an assault weapons ban in place.
It was called the "Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act."
The measure was signed by President Clinton and enacted in 1994 but it expired in 2004.
And Congress has repeatedly decided since then not to renew it.