OntheWilderSide

How Many More Children Have to Die?
School Shootings Lead Us to Ask Congress Why There’s Such Easy Access to Guns

We are all outraged by the increase in gun violence in America, especially the recent high-profile shootings of children.

How many more times does our nation have to suffer through the same thing? Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Bailey, Colorado. Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hillsborough, North Carolina. Essex, Vermont. And this is just a partial list of shootings that happen all too often in all parts of our nation year after year.

There is one common thread through all these tragedies — it was too easy for the wrong person to get deadly weapons.

The Congress has been downright hostile to efforts to prevent gun violence, turning a blind eye to the victims and helping to create a culture where gun violence is becoming more prevalent and commonplace.

We need to ask our elected officials why they allow such easy access to guns.
We need them to answer the cries for help.

Just last week, Congress was pushing a bill to make it more difficult for law enforcement to crack down on rogue gun dealers. Instead of trying to find solutions to gun violence, they were busy trying to make it easier for criminals to get their hands on guns.

But thanks to your generous support, the Brady Campaign has been holding off the dangerous agenda of the gun pushers in Congress. Here’s just a sample of the NRA-backed legislation you helped us block:

• We stopped them from repealing the requirement that child safety locks be sold with every handgun — a law that just went to effect last year.
• We stopped them from undermining the Brady Law and landmark 1968 Gun Control Act by making it easier for gun traffickers to cross state lines to get guns.
• We stopped them from weakening the power of law enforcement to identify and shut down corrupt gun dealers. This includes gun shops such as Valley Gun of Baltimore — owned by NRA Board Member Sanford Abrams — which had more than 900 violations of law.

Holding off this onslaught was no small feat. But, with determination and your help, we effectively exposed the gun lobby’s outrageous agenda in the media, through the skillful work of our law enforcement allies, our gun violence prevention partners, and our network of Million Mom March Chapters.

In fact, you, our StoptheNRA eActivists, generated nearly 200,000 emails, letters, and phone calls into the offices of our elected officials. And all the pressure worked!

Now our attention turns to the elections on November 7. There is a strong sense that the tide is turning away from the NRA’s extremism and toward taking strong, sensible steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Our political arm, the Brady Voter Education Fund, is working hard to elect candidates who support our common sense agenda. They will be directly involved in a number of high profile races, educating voters on the positions of candidates. And with your help, we can take a huge leap forward in getting rid of the current gun lobby allies who hold elected office.

It will still take a lot of work to pass tougher laws to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but together we can do it.Sincerely,

Paul Helmke
President, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

P. S. It is possible that Congress will be back for a “lame duck” session after the elections. We may have to call on you again to stop any last-ditch efforts to shove these pieces of harmful legislation through Congress. We’ll keep you informed.

Filed under: election, grassroots democracy, reform, social & economic justice, To Study Up On Nonviolence, US Politics Tagged: | UFPJ, Uncategorized