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ENDING GUN VIOLENCE IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

12/4/2015

1 Comment

 
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A thriving world is a world that is safe from random gun violence; where we can shop, go to movies, or to work – and not be terrorized by people with assault weapons in our communities. 
 
31,000 Americans are killed each year by gun violence – not by terrorists from outside of the U.S.
 
There were more than 316,000 firearm deaths between 2004 and 2013, compared to 313 terrorism deaths of Americans.  (American Deaths from Gun Violence vs Terrorism in One Chart, Rolling Stone, 10.2.15)
 
"We spend over a trillion dollars, pass countless laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?" questioned President Obama speaking after a mass shooting on the Umpqua Community College campus.
 
Research shows—and cops will tell you—that common-sense public safety laws reduce gun violence and save lives.  It is simply too easy for the wrong people to get guns, leading to all kinds of violence—from deadly domestic abuse to suicide and school shootings.
There are proven solutions to gun violence.  The first step is for our leaders to pass the legislation that will:

  • Ban assault weapons – except for the military
  • Demand background checks for every gun sale
These are the first steps, and like any wound they are only “band aid solutions” to a wider systemic problem.   The Prevention Institute has developed a list of recommendations that provide a systems wide approach to this issue that includes:
  1. Establish a culture of Gun Safety
  2. Mental health treatment: Ensure accessible, high quality, culturally competent and widely accessed mental health treatment.
  3. Trauma reduction: Reduce children's exposure to violence and address the impact of children who have been exposed to trauma.
  4. Pass Sensible gun laws: Ban high capacity magazines, expand the 24 hour gun background check to make it universal, and reinstitute the assault weapons ban immediately.
  5. Develop Comprehensive solutions:  Charge the Department of Justice; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration; and the Department of Education to identify solutions in 90 days.
  6. Create Safe Communities: Support citywide planning and implementation of comprehensive violence prevention plans.
  7. Develop Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence, a leading cause of premature death in out country, as a critical and preventable public health problem.
  8. Unshackle the CDC – Center for Disease Control -- which is now restricted from making recommendations on sensible ways to reduce gun violence.
Ending gun violence is not rocket science; but we do need the political will to make it happen.  That political will originates with each of us -- as citizens.  What will you do?


WHAT CAN YOU DO?  Make YOUR VOICE heard!
  • Call your Senator TODAY and demand a vote NOW on background checks
  • Demand that political candidates commit to fight for common sense gun laws
  • Write a letter to the Editor
  • Join a coalition:  look at your local Moms Demand Action Chapter
  • If you appreciate Spike Lee’s view his newest movies: Chi-raq – a cry for gun control
  • Get more information at:
    • Everytown for Gun Safety
    • Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
  • Speak with friends – what can you do together?
1 Comment
Niels link
6/16/2018 04:16:53 am

That's why I vote for gun control. We need safe for our children.

Reply



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