AROUND THE NATION, A RISING TIDE: COMMUNITIES CLAMOR FOR ACTION ON GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Brady Campaign ^ | 6-15-05

[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."

[elbucko]

Look Bucko, you made a small error and got nailed.

Yes, it was small error and a bigger man would have left it alone. But not you. May I remind you that it was you who made the error an issue, not me. Perhaps some maturity would improve you as well.

[infidel29]

I get the "Federalist Patriot" newsletter in my e-mail, it was in there. That doesn't mean anything though they've had some incorrect quotes before, although they're right 90% of the time. I don't have the issue it came in sorry. I'll try to verify it.

[Travis McGee]

Besides being "new" to me, it just doesn't sound like the language of the era.

[infidel29]

I've most likely worded it wrong, but I'm so sure it's Franklin it's driving me nuts...

I found lots of good quotes from Teddy Roosevelt though...

[Bottom_Gun]

yea, I have to agree with you on the age of terrorism stuff. Post 9/11 and after her return from Afghanistan, one of the first things my wife did was get her CCW, even though I've had mine for years. her reasoning was " you're not going to be around all the time, so I figured I need to get mine also".

[RKV]

A bigger man than you would recognize that not everyone who corrects you when you make a mistake is your enemy. You might learn something if you can ever get past your overreaction.

[philman_36]

In Duluth, Minnesota this afternoon, the bells will be ringing. Duluth's citizens are not alone in demanding action.
I don't see the people of Duluth demanding action.
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.
I simply see them remembering and recognizing local deaths. What action are they demanding?
Talk about twisting the facts to gain a desired effect.
And the only "clamoring" I see is coming from the yaps of the Brady Campaign and the $MM.

[porkchops 4 mahound]

The ever pungent odor of gun grabbing moron BS.

So timely now also, just when the American people should insist on taking up their arms for the protection of home, hearth, kin, and kindred, from the monsters who walk among us.

Is there a school these leftist mo roons learn to be so anti-American?

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

What about this quote from Hitler:

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty." -- Adolf Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938, H.R. Trevor-Roper, Hitler's Table Talks 1941-1944 (London: Widenfeld and Nicolson, 1953, p. 425-426).

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

All these quotes below are true quotes. Correct me if any are wrong.

"When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom." -- Thomas Paine

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." -- George Washington

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." -- George Washington

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." -- Mohandas Gandhi

[mbynack]

I'm concerned about gun violence, too. I think that we need to look at the sources of the problem, like single-parent homes, declining family values, gangs teaching our children their values and not parents, a lack of firearms training in our schools, and the faulty logic of disarming victims and not criminals.

[PGalt]

Where's MADD? Drunk Drivers don't kill people, cars kill people.

[elbucko]

A bigger man than you would recognize that not everyone who corrects you when you make a mistake is your enemy.

True, but at the shooting range when someone in another position has shoot at your target, it is either an accident or on purpose. Both are breeches of decorum and obligate the miscreant to offer an apology rather than accuse the offended of having his target in the way of the mis-shooters bullet.

My reference to "infedel129" as the source of the Ben Franklin quote at post #12 was clear, accurate and it occurred 6 posts before mine. It would seem that you shot at the wrong target, cannot admit your mistake and that such an admission is more of an issue with you than it is with me.

I don't know if the Franklin quote is accurate or not, and for that matter, I don't care. The logic expressed by the erroneous (?) quote was valid, nonetheless. If I am guilty of anything it is hearsay, nothing more.

"Any problems with that? TOUGH."

[HolgerDansk]

Hey! Where's the "Projectile Barf Alert" warning?