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Posted on 06/18/2005 11:04:06 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
AROUND THE NATION, A RISING TIDE:COMMUNITIES CLAMOR FOR ACTION ON GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION
In Duluth, Minnesota this afternoon, the bells will be ringing. Duluth's citizens are not alone in demanding action.
Washington D.C. – In states throughout the nation, the extreme gun lobby and their willing accomplices in public office are getting stiff reactions to their hard-headed refusal to support reasonable steps to protect the safety of American families.
Some of those responses:
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, two Senators received a frosty reception for offering no genuine response to combating what has been a terrible year of gun violence.
In Illinois, a Governor who was dared and threatened by the gun industry is slamming the door on the gun show loophole, which allows criminals, spousal abusers and potential terrorists to arm themselves without a background check.
In California, groundbreaking new crime detection tools are being proposed that would help law enforcement use bullet shells to track down and prosecute gun criminals.
And in Duluth, Minnesota, community leaders will chime a bell this afternoon for the children lost at the Red Lake Indian Reservation, the four-year-old killed by a target shooter in a tragic accident, and a father of three who died in a bar at the hands of a bully with a concealed handgun permit.
"The voices of the American people are getting louder in demanding action to combat gun violence," said Mike Barnes, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "The people are ahead of the politicians – but smart politicians would be well advised to listen to the rising voices."
"The voices of the American people are getting louder in demanding action to combat gun violence," said Mike Barnes, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "The people are ahead of the politicians – but smart politicians would be well advised to listen to the rising voices."A case in point: Pennsylvania's Senators, Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, Monday staged a field hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Specter chairs. The hearing was little more than a photo op for Santorum, who faces a difficult re-election next year. The Senators were greeted with a newspaper editorial that read "if Santorum and Specter side with the gun lobby, then they should stick around after their hearing for the next funeral of a child who has died from being shot." News coverage of the event was dominated with commentary about efforts to stem gun violence, which Specter and Santorum refused to support.
"I don't think they got the reception they expected," said Barbara Montgomery, President of the Pennsylvania Million Mom March Chapters. "But they got the reception they deserved."
In America's heartland, the chief lobbyist of the National Rifle Association in Illinois tried to force Governor Rod Blagojevich to accept destruction of vital law enforcement records as the price tag for protecting citizens from gun purchases by criminals. But the Governor turned the tables on the NRA and helped ensure the passage of a clean bill that closed the loophole without destroying the records. "Our police will be able to continue using the firearm purchase database to protect their officers and track down illegal gun dealers; and people who want to purchase firearms at gun shows in Illinois will go through the same important background checks as people who buy from licensed retail dealers," Governor Blagojevich said.
"What happened in the State Capitol was the people won, and the extremists lost," said Tom Vanden Berk, Chicago Survivors Million Mom March Chapter leader.
Meanwhile, state legislators in California are moving closer to passage of a law that would give law enforcement investigators a remarkably promising new technological tool in crime investigation, with two separate approaches to tagging ammunition that would lead police to the purchasers of guns and ammo. The California Department of Justice is spearheading advocacy of the bills. Griffin Dix, President of the California Million Mom March Chapters, said the technology would "help police solve thousands of handgun crimes and make Californians safer."
Few incidents of gun violence this year have been as high profile as the tragic incident at Red Lake, Minnesota, where ten people, from 15 to 62 years of age, perished March 21. On Wednesday, June 15, as part of a Duluth, Minnesota "Walk for Peace," community members affiliated with the Northland Million Mom March Chapter will ring the bell for each of the victims in their memorial garden, at Lake Place Park near Superior Street and Lake Avenue. They will also ring the bell for Evan Klassen, 4, accidentally shot during target practice at Lake Vermillion; and for Billy Walsh, 43 and the father of three, who was shot at Nye's Polonaise Room in Minneapolis May 12. Zachary Ourada, 26, a concealed handgun permit holder, has been charged with Mr. Walsh's murder. Ourada was reportedly intoxicated and harassing female patrons of the resturant. When Mr. Walsh asked him to leave, Ourada reportedly shot him four times in the back, and later shouted to police "I didn't do nothin' wrong, man! I got a permit to carry..."
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, nevertheless, just signed a bill that makes it even easier for Minnesotans who shouldn't have a permit to get a permit to carry a hidden handgun, and broadens where guns can be taken, including bars and restaurant.
"We believe that when it comes to preventing gun violence, we can do better in Minnesota," said Joan Peterson, Co-President of the Northland Moms. "And we believe it is up to all of us to educate our elected leaders that we expect them to do what the people want. They can lead, or the people will eventually make sure that they follow."
I want nationwide concealed-weapons carry and I want it NOW!
That action would save more lives and thin the herd of violent criminals more than anything Sarah Brady ever proposed in her life.
-ccm
Well, we had Million Mom March organizer, spokeswoman and activist Barbara Graham gunning down a man in an attempt to avenge the murder of her son (she shot the wrong guy, and crippled him). And then we had antigun activist Annette "Flirty" Stevens keeping an unlicensed handgun, with the serial filed off, in her home -- along with some narcotics.
And now we've got antigun activist Sheila Eccleston calling the police about a burglary next door, and encouraging them to make it quick because she had a sawed-off shotgun in her home, one that she admits had been there for six months.
I think some of these folks are unclear on a lot of concepts.
Let'em keep up the hysterical propaganda! It just highlights how out of touch they are with the rest of the country and will guarantee more victories for the NRA and the Republican Party. It's fun to watch the libs disintegrate right in from of your eyes. You don't even have to get up to change the channel.
I demand college campuses recognize my right to conceal carry on the premises! Seriously. Sounds like a common sense solution to me.
More Brady Bulls*#t.
You'd think they'd be happy that crime in this country has been going down for the most part for the past few decades. Of course the kinds of crime that could be prevented by handguns--rapes, for example--don't seem to concern them much.
No, they're not. I haven't heard one person outraged over gun control. Most want to keep their right to protect themselves - especially in the age of terrorism.
These Brady people are nuts. Maybe they're Communists, because the first thing a Communist government does is disarm it's population.
No one cares what the anti-arms lobby thinks anymore. They're so 1990's. They're yesterdays news.
So am I. Like all criminals who commit crimes with guns being locked up. Forever.
Get rid of the gangs, problem solved.
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...and it has cost how many million dollars to implement ?... and it has never led to any arrest or conviction of an offender in a gun crime.
How many times do we have to hear about the "gun show loophole?"
A quote: "If a man is willing to use a gun in the commition of a crime it stands to reason that he would be willing to commit a crime to obtain a gun."--Benjamin Franklin
If they were the Miilion Mom March would be a viable active organization, instead of a hollow shell front for the Brady Organixation.
Exactly. Sarah Brady taking out her pain on the innocent. If those who who decry the gun violence in this country want to accomplish something, they should bring back the mental hospitals that JFK closed. However that would mean admitting that the Kennedys' can be wrong.
The gun banners have been claiming 80% of Americans polled want more gun control for decades.
Their only problem is that in the only poll that counts, elections, they've been losing badly.
I'm only clamoring because I can't afford any new
C&Rs.
Good one! Worth repeating, often.
Furthermore, the quote begs the question whether or not the Founding Fathers pondered citizens and guns. It seems that they did, and did approve of "the people" being armed.
The silence is deafening isn't, it?
What " voices of the American people are getting louder"? Who are they talking about?
"A RISING TIDE". Yeah, sure. And overflowing with lies stinking like dead fish.
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Uh-oh. A Rising Tide, complete with "communities" calling for action. Next thing we know, there will be an Increasing Call, followed by a Growing Chorus.