Statement by States United to Prevent Gun Violence on Banning High Capacity Ammunition Magazines

(January 18, 2011, New York) In the aftermath of the horrific tragedy in Tucson on January 8th, States United to Prevent Gun Violence is calling on members of Congress to pass legislation introduced today by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D – NY), which will ban large capacity ammunition magazines, like the ones used by the Tucson shooter that left 6 dead and 13 injured.

Over the last several years, we have seen too many high profile shootings where high capacity magazines were used with devastating results like Columbine 13 killed, 23 wounded, Virginia Tech 32 killed, 17 wounded, Fort Hood 13 killed, 34 wounded, and now Tucson.

Today, we support the legislation introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy as an important step in limiting the unreasonable firepower that civilians can possess and trust that this will help reduce the number of people killed and injured in our country. More importantly, we call on our federal lawmakers to act swiftly in passing a ban on high capacity ammunition magazines and for President Obama to sign the legislation. The stakes are too high and the risks too great for our lawmakers to let another shooting tragedy pass by with inaction.

About SUPGV States United to Prevent Gun Violence is a national non-profit organization working to decrease gun death and injury. Our mission is to support existing state-based gun violence prevention organizations and to build new organizations within the 50 states to prevent gun violence. The main goal of SUPGV is to provide an array of services that helps to build organizational capacity at the state level and simultaneously grow the movement. On the web: www.supgv.org

Contact: Barbara Hohlt (917-860-9293) or Andy Pelosi (914-629-6726)