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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: National Gun Violence Prevention Organizations |
Alabama Shooting Shows Need for Assault Weapons Ban Say National Groups
WASHINGTON - March 11 - Following yesterday’s assault weapon rampage shooting in Alabama leaving 11 dead including the shooter, America’s leading national gun violence prevention organizations--Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Freedom States Alliance, Legal Community Against Violence, and Violence Policy Center-- issued the following joint statement:
“Our sympathies go to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.
“The guns used in yesterday’s rampage shooting across Alabama--a Bushmaster AR-15-style assault rifle and an SKS assault rifle--are military-bred firearms developed for the specific purpose of killing human beings quickly and efficiently. Yesterday’s shooting is only the latest addition to a string of preventable tragedies committed with these military-style weapons. America needs an effective federal assault weapons ban to stop the mass production and marketing by the gun industry of these anti-personnel weapons. Today we call on the U.S. Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban modeled on California’s effective law that would ban these weapons once and for all.
“The answer to gun violence is not more guns. Alabama has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the nation–more than 57 percent of the state’s households have guns–and some of the weakest gun laws in the country. At the same time, its overall gun death rate for 2005 (16.18 per 100,000) ranks it fifth in the nation. The sad truth is that America will continue to experience these horrific events until Congress listens to the friends and families of the 30,000 Americans who die from guns each year instead of the National Rifle Association.”
***
Contacts: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
Peter Hamm, 202-898-0792, phamm@bradymail.org;
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Ladd Everitt, 202-408-0061 x1003, leveritt@csgv.org; Freedom States Alliance,
Scott Vogel, 312-243-8980, scott@freedomstatesalliance.
5 Comments so far
Show AllIn the article you wrote:
"“The answer to gun violence is not more guns. Alabama has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the nation–more than 57 percent of the state’s households have guns–and some of the weakest gun laws in the country. At the same time, its overall gun death rate for 2005 (16.18 per 100,000) ranks it fifth in the nation."
5th in the nation, let me give you the #1 highest gun related death per capita State (District Actually) Washington DC. Coincidently Washington has some of the strictest gun laws. So If I had to chose between tough gun laws and a high murder rate, or less restrictive laws and a gun rate about half of DC's I go with the later.
And Ray, I don't want to call you out specifically, but I use my gun for target practice. Since I was young with a BB gun my guns have taught me patience, respect, and concentration. So you are right, the gun's ultimate goal is to be used. But it is up to the person handling it to decide what that use is.
Ray Berthiaume
I cringe when I hear people speak of the need for freedom to buy any kind of gun. If you own it, you will ultimately use it. Or be prepared to use it. Join that mentality with anger and you have a killing waiting to happen. When will we ever learn?
Automatic Assault Weapons will be getting a lot more press as Soldiers with untreated Post Traumatic Stress syndrome return stateside to unemployment, foreclosures, and insufficient medical care...
It is not really that far a stretch to imagine that men and women who have been taught to use such weapons to "control or manage" daily disturbances might reach for something familiar when something tips them over the edge...
When a culture upholds the right to prove that might makes right... anything is possible :( !
None of these weapons were automatics. and i hate to say it, but when you are being attacked or threatened, might usually DOES make right.
As usual, more fear mongering from the Brady Bunch and the usual gang of idiots. While horrific, events such as these are statistically RARE - but they won't say that because the gore, blood and guts grabs headlines and captures the imaginations of the weak willed and under educated.
The 94 AWB was a COSMETICS ban and nothing more - it addressed features such as flash hiders, bayonet lugs and folding stocks that really have little to do with the performance of the weapon. Further, before the ban, the use of these weapons in crime, mind you they were afraid of 'gang bangas' back then, was also statistically rare - with gang members and other subhumans preferring to use cheap, disposable weapons such as .25 automatics and revolvers.
Brady and other groups of this ilk say they have no problem with legitimate sporting use weapons. they lie and they are inaccurate. the lie is that their overall agenda is to remove all firearms from civilian ownership. The inaccuracy - the second amendment has nothing to do with sporting rifles.
In the end, I think it should be up to the American citizen as an individual, whether or not to own these weapons.