Happiness is plinking at Sarah Brady's picture on the back of a milk carton.
Posted on 04/27/2002 3:38:29 AM PDT by Vigilant1
U.S. Newswire
26 Apr 15:11
Brady Campaign: Instead of Courting the NRA, Lawmakers Should Listen to America and Take Action to Make Communities Safer
To: National Desk
Contact: Amy Stilwell of the Brady Campaign, 202-898-0792
WASHINGTON, April 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March, today issued the following statement regarding the National Rifle Association's (NRA) announcement that Senator Zell Miller (D-Ga.) will be the keynote speaker at the NRA's annual convention to be held in Reno, Nev. April 26-28:
"As America struggles to increase national security, Senator Miller and other lawmakers should be acting on measures that will make our communities more secure rather than courting the NRA -- an extreme special interest that is systematically working to dismantle sensible gun laws that have proven to save lives.
"The NRA leadership does not represent the views of mainstream Americans. Rather than working to prevent gun violence, the NRA fights to keep military-style assault weapons -- high-powered weapons with no civilian purpose -- easily available and on our streets. NRA leaders repeatedly demonize America's law enforcement officers, most infamously calling federal agents 'jack-booted thugs' for enforcing our nation's gun laws. Are these the so-called 'values' our lawmakers want to espouse?
"Before Senator Miller's colleagues rush to embrace his belief that supporting sensible gun laws loses elections, they should look around the Senate chamber to note the presence of Senators -- like Bill Nelson of Florida, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Maria Cantwell of Washington -- who vocally supported sensible gun policy during their campaigns, and the glaring absence of those who opposed life-saving gun policy measures. The last two elections demonstrate that Americans want common-sense gun laws and they will support elected officials who pursue them.
"Despite outspending the gun control movement by a margin of five to one in the 2000 elections, the NRA lost five of the top seven U.S. Senate candidates it backed with independent expenditures, and seven of the top nine House races it targeted.
In contrast, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence succeeded in defeating nine out of 12 'Dangerous Dozen' candidates we targeted. And two traditionally pro-gun Western states, Colorado and Oregon, overwhelmingly approved citizen-led statewide ballot initiatives to close the gun show loophole.
"In 2001, James McGreevy highlighted gun policy in his successful bid to become Governor of New Jersey. In Virginia, strong support from gun violence prevention advocates in Northern Virginia, including the Million Mom March, helped to secure Mark Warner's victory.
"Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, support sensible gun laws. Past is prologue, and Democrats and Republicans who want to win elections would do well to listen to their constituents and address gun violence prevention issues in their upcoming campaigns."
For the Brady Campaign's full analysis of the 2000 elections, go to:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=39
To read the Brady Center's reports on how the NRA has prevented enforcement of gun laws and on the link between guns and terrorism, go to
http://www.gunlawsuits.org/pdf/defend/fable.pdf
http://www.bradycampaign.org/home/archives/pdf/121901.pdf,
respectively.
Recent Gun Trends:
-- Requests for Background Checks down -- The NRA has also been promoting the idea that gun sales have skyrocketed since September 11 -- a claim exposed as fiction when the Christian Science Monitor reported on April 2 that background checks requests are declining.
Specifically, FBI statistics cited in the April 2, 2002 edition of the Christian Science Monitor, requests for background checks on gun sales have fallen over the last two years. This is despite the brief increase in background checks that was reported after the September 11 terrorist attacks. (For the full story go to: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0402/p01s02-ussc.html)
-- Handgun Sales in California at 30-Year Low -- Handgun sales in California last year dropped to the lowest level since the state began keeping records 30 years ago, according to new data from the state Department of Justice. The sharp downward trend began in the mid-1990s. Handgun sales have fallen by 65 percent since they peaked nearly 10 years ago, even as the state's population has swelled by 70 percent from about 20 million in 1972 to over 34 million today. (To view the Brady Campaign's press release go to: http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=385)
-- NRA Efforts to Weaken "Concealed-Carry" Laws Floundering -- In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the NRA has been trying to exploit the public's understandable fears by pushing state legislatures into weakening their laws on the carrying of concealed weapons. Fortunately, the NRA's efforts to weaken concealed-carry laws have been defeated in Nebraska and Wisconsin and face defeat in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Even Southern states that would be considered NRA strongholds, like Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, have rejected its attempts to allow concealed weapons in schools, churches and bars.
-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
04/26 15:11
Happiness is plinking at Sarah Brady's picture on the back of a milk carton.
Funny you should say that. As I read through, I was mentally highlighting:
"Lie... misleading... lie... propaganda... outright lie..."
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined:
to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants;
they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked
with greater...confidence than an armed man. -- Thomas Jefferson
Sounds like fuzzy logic to me that this gun grabber only wants Virginia cops, the same ones who endorse and enforce the NRA's "Project Exile" (pilot program began in Richmond), to have guns!
Actually, it was DemocRAT, John Dingel (D-MI) who said it first. The NRA was just quoting him.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
Stab didn't mention guns at all in the campaign, and always tries to sound pro-2a(She's ASD all the way though).
She spoke at one Million Moron meeting on Mother's Day 2000....and quickly forgot about it afterward.
I didn't think they liked Mark Warner. I'd never guess that Warner was considered a victory for them.
Cantwell won election by a handfull of votes that can be directly attributed to Ralph Nader's campaign bringing out college kids to the polls. She did not run a campaign based on gun control and to suggest she did is an out and out lie.
5.56mm
"Are these the so-called 'values' our lawmakers want to espouse?"
the NRA -- an extreme special interest
Well, the NRA is not exactly extreme, in any sense of the word, and an organization with 4 million plus members is not exactly a special interest in the political sense...
that is systematically working to dismantle sensible gun laws
I wish this were true, but it ain't. Would be a good idea, though.
that have proven to save lives.
Baldfaced lie. The one thing uniting all of the gun control laws established to date is that, at best, they have no effect on "saving lives." The best research to date indicates that they cost lives.
Maybe it's time for a Brady Bunch "Democrat nazi flier", ehh? ;-)
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