(Radio Iowa) – There’s been a rash of mass shootings nationwide lately, including last week in Des Moines where two teenagers were killed and an adult was wounded in what police say was a gang-related incident. Five shooting rampages in Iowa, California and Washington left 24 people dead in less than a week. Iowa U-S Senator Chuck Grassley calls the slayings tragic.  “This sort of violence is just indisputably wrong. We can’t tolerate this sort of thing. We’ve got to concentrate on the people doing the killing, and protect the constitutional right to own firearms.”

On Tuesday, police say a man carrying an A-R-15-style rifle and 13 full clips of ammunition walked into an Omaha Target store and started firing. Law officers responded quickly, shot and killed the suspect and miraculously, no one else was even injured. Grassley was asked if he sees any possible solutions coming at the federal level that could curb the killings. “It’s very important that we take advantage of all the things that were in the bill that passed last year to stop gun violence,” Grassley says, “particularly the emphasis upon making sure that people that have mental health issues, that their name is in the databank and they can’t legally buy a gun.”

Grassley says significant efforts are being made to prevent people who might be a threat from getting a firearm, at least legally. “When people illegally get guns, I don’t know how you pass a law against people just breaking the law,” Grassley says, “and I’ll bet you in most of these killings, people have their guns illegally.”

There were six homicides in Des Moines during January, all six involved guns.