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North Carolinians Against Gun Violence
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Working Together to Reduce Gun Deaths and Injuries States United to Prevent Gun Violence Research and Education Fund is an association of independent state-wide gun violence prevention organizations. The purpose of States United is to allow our members to share best practices, programs and legislative ideas in order to work effectively to prevent gun deaths and injuries. If you want to get involved, check out our list of state members and contact the one in your state. The last weeks have been hard ones for sensible gun legislation. The Senate and House both passed a credit card reform bill with a non-germane amendment that forces the Department of Interior to allow loaded guns of any type in national parks. 67 Senators voted for this amendment and 147 House members. Click here for the Senate vote and click here for the House vote. States United issued a press release to express our disappointment and many members of our state organizations have been calling members of Congress. On May 22nd President Obama signed this bill into law. National parks will no longer be special places where visitors can get away from the cares or the world and enjoy nature at its best. On May 13th, States United in a press release said it was "Deeply Disappointed President Obama Chooses to Retain 'Tiahrt Amendment' Ban on Release of Information Previously Available Under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)." The President's proposed budget language allows for more crime gun trace data to be released to law enforcement but adds new language to prevent sharing of this data. So much for openness and transparency! It is hard to make good policy on reducing gun violence without allowing policy makers and researchers access to data that until the Bush administration was available. We urge members of Congress to remove all theTiahrt restrictions in the budget appropriations process. Our state organizations have been busy with a variety of educational projects recently. WAVE Education Fund took 450 T-shirts on a 450 mile tour of their state in three days with stops at five cities to highlight the problem of gun violence in Wisconsin.
Here onlookers contemplate some of the 450 shirts on display at Milwaukee City Hall, part of an attempt by the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort to raise awareness of gun violence. The 450 shirts represent the average number of gun violence victims in Wisconsin each year. WAVE is seeking legislation to require background checks on all gun sales. This across the state display was widely covered by the press including this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. CeasefireNJ continues to work with churches and church members on a project called Heeding God's Call. They hold weekly vigils outside a gun store in Philadelphia in an attempt to get the store to adopt a code of conduct on sales. On April 25th Washington Ceasefire held the Seventh Annual Tom Wales Memorial 5k Run/Walk to remember the former President of their organization who was shot and killed in 2001 and to raise money for their youth programs. Mayor Nickels delivered opening remarks prior to the race. Our state organizations are also working hard for sensible gun laws. Washington Ceasefire had a victory when on April 13th when the Washington State Senate passed the first piece of gun violence prevention legislation in over two decades by a vote of 39-1. The bill, HB 1498, which passed in the House unanimously last month, will strengthen mental health records reporting to the background check system for gun sales. The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence announced that in their legislature a bill passed that calls for the revocation of a permit to purchase when an order of protection is served. Previously, guns could be removed from the home but the person still had their permit to purchase new guns. New Yorkers Against Gun Violence held their 13th annual lobby day on April 29th. They took over 250 students and adults to Albany to lobby for microstamping; a gun dealer bill that requires gun dealers to do such things as safely lock up stock at night, train employees and keep better inventories and a new bill that will make handgun licenses renewable across the state. Currently. licenses only have to be renewed in New York City and surrounding counties. Upstate licenses are good for life so there is no opportunity to recheck someone's background. Such rechecks might have prevented the shooter in Binghamton from having a gun license. And our groups continue to work for the passage of sensible federal gun laws as well. The gun lobby keeps saying that sensible gun laws are useless as criminals will never obey them but then why do we have any laws at all. Obviously, laws are needed to prosecute someone who illegally obtains a gun. And we make it far too easy for criminals to get guns. If 40% of gun sales involve no back ground checks at all, how are we supposed to know when a felon buys a gun. It makes no sense and thankfully most gun owners agree. They do not want to see criminals easily get guns. Let's work together to keep guns out of the hands of gun traffickers and criminals. For a start we should insist that Congress act to make sure that there are criminal background checks on all gun sales. And we need Congress to lift the Tiahrt restrictions that prevent law enforcement from getting the information on crime gun trace data needed to go after illegal gun traffickers. And we must educate the public about the dangers of a gun when someone if depressed, upset and angry. A 20/20 program now on Youtube shows how easy it is for anyone to purchase a gun at guns shows with no questions asked.
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