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'It's Time To Do Something': Maryland Sheriff Calls For Sensible Gun Policy

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Maryland sheriff has written an editorial calling for everyone to be "a thorn in the side of elected officials," so that sensible gun policy can be passed.

Prince George's County Sheriff Melvin C. High said recent mass shooting scenes have brought him back to his time in war zone Vietnam.

"The Las Vegas massacre and now Sutherland gave us more killing fields of innocent people doing nothing more than enjoying life or worshiping together," he wrote.

"There is no plausible explanation but that we haven't the courage or the political will to address the root cause of much of our violence – guns."

Sheriff High, who was sworn in as sheriff in 2010, is calling for sensible gun policy, so that automatic weapons do not get into the hands of criminals and those with mental issues.

"Fellow citizens, it's time we were a thorn in the side of elected officials. Automatic weapons, equipment that makes a weapon automatic, and magazines with dozens of bullet rounds are weapons of war. They must not get into the hands of criminals and the mentally unbalanced," Sheriff High wrote.

Sheriff High credits Maryland with passing gun legislation, but said "it's important that sensible gun policy is a national effort."

"It's time to do something, for all the other times we as a country have done nothing," he wrote.

Click here to read the full statement from Sheriff High.

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