WASHINGTON - March 30 - Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement on behalf of the Brady Campaign and the North Carolina Million Mom March chapters on the nursing home tragedy in Carthage, North Carolina:

"To the families of the innocent victims in Carthage, we offer our sorrow and condolences.

"We are having too many incidents like the one at the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center in this country. In Oakland, in Alabama, on the Mexican border, even in churches like one in Southern Illinois, our weak gun laws are costing innocent people their lives.

"If, in the month of March, tainted peanut butter or spinach had led to the deaths of ten people in Alabama, eight in North Carolina and four in California, Congress would be calling for investigations and legislative reform. But 22 die in mass shootings in less than a month, and Congress and the White House do nothing. With 30,000 Americans dying every year from gun violence in America, we owe it to our citizens to exercise a similar diligence in addressing gun violence."