Every week or so, I go to the Senate floor to tell the stories of a handful of the 646 people who are killed each week by guns in America. Some have questioned why I continue to return to the Senate floor, over and over, when it is pretty clear that with Republicans in charge of the Senate aren’t going to bring legislation to floor anytime soon that will take illegal and dangerous guns off the street. I do it because I believe that eventually the avalanche of emotion surrounding the thousands of slain brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters cannot be ignored. I tell the stories of the Newtown families, who still grieve so deeply for lives cut so short. I tell the stories of parents who lost their teenagers on the streets of Chicago and New Haven and Los Angeles, just because their kid happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tell the stories of the thousands of people who took their own lives, sometimes because a gun was too close by in their darkest hour.

But stories can only go so far. Data is on our side too. So thank you, Mother Jones, for making it clear that we all bear the burden of the scourge of gun violence. We all pay a price for inaction. This research is so crucial because many people believe that as long as they live outside of the most dangerous neighborhoods in their state, they can avoid the issue of gun violence. Clearly, the facts rebut this belief — just ask parents in Sandy Hook or Aurora or Littleton. But even if your community never witnesses a mass shooting, we are all on the hook when it comes to the costs of gun violence. It should add up first on our conscience, just as it adds up just as quickly on our tax bill.

I will take this new report to the Senate floor the first chance I get. It alone won’t cause a breakthrough, but just as those that fought the civil rights movement never gave up despite setback after setback, year of inaction after year of inaction, neither will we. Silence in the face of wrongdoing eventually becomes complicity. This new report from Mother Jones will make silence just a little harder from now on.