Within 48 hours of the terrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, a new campaign was launched called We Are Better Than This. It was based on the fundamental belief that we are better than a nation with mass shootings like the one in Aurora, Colorado, and better than the 32 gun murders that happen every day. By talking directly with Americans either through TV appearances, or our website WeAreBetterThanThis.org and its related Facebook page, the campaign provided a place where all Americans -- whether shocked and horrified by the tragedy in Aurora or living with the tragedy that occurs in our communities every day -- could come together. Our goal was to rise above partisan politics and have a respectful conversation about what we can do to make our nation the better, safer place we all want it to be. Then an amazing thing happened. A real conversation actually began.
Americans across the country and across the political spectrum began to speak up and join the conversation. Gun violence prevention advocates and NRA members are talking to one another about things we can do to prevent tragedies that don't infringe on the Second Amendment. People like Michael Gerson (George W. Bush's speech writer), Bill O'Reilly and Rupert Murdoch have talked about how it is time for sensible gun policy. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the recent majority opinion on the Second Amendment right to bear arms, has opened the door for a discussion of gun policy. Well-known Republican pollster Frank Luntz released a poll that shows that 74% of NRA members support background checks to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
Tens of thousands have signed petitions such as the one on WeAreBetterThanThis.org, demanding our elected officials show leadership in this conversation, stop playing politics and provide the American public with the solutions we deserve. Some elected officials have been listening -- and some have started to take action.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a long time advocate for sensible solutions to gun violence, has called on our nation's leaders to provide a plan and address the violence that is plaguing municipalities across the country everyday. And, just today, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced legislation that would make it harder for dangerous people to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition online.
But still, far too many of our elected officials are not listening to the undeniable outcry from the American public. President Obama and Governor Romney should offer real solutions -- substantive plans to address an issue that will claim more than 48,000 lives during the term of the next president unless we do something about it. Leaders of both parties have gone out of their way to avoid talking about the role that gun policies can play in making us a safer nation. They have been more than comfortable - too comfortable -- to announce that they don't expect to do anything about this national problem any time soon -- even though an overwhelming majority of their constituents support sensible gun control policies.
The conversation we're advancing on WeAreBetterThanThis.org shows just how ready the American public is to address gun violence. We want solutions that will save lives. We are willing to put aside our political differences to find them. We know we are better than this. Now we must hold our elected officials accountable to show that they are too.
A Chicago Police department Five year analysis showed about 75% Of murders were commited by people with prior arrest records. A DOJ analysis shows the median sentence for a felon is 16 months. On average 15% of Americans have an arrest record - meaning they are 5x as likely to commit a murder.
Want less murders? Address that issue.
Think banning "assault weapons" is the answer? Wrong, handguns are used 80% of the time. Assault weapons ~1% of the time.
95% of the time the guns were illegally obtained.
So who are these proposals going to impact? Law abiding citizens, people who on the average use te guns 2.5M times per year to prevent crime (which is not nrealy as spectacular as these crimes and often under reported - such as back earlier this year when a parishioner in an Aurora CO shot and killed a would be mass shooter after they broke in and killed one church member)
These proposals will be ineffective - just look at Chicago - pushing 500 per year murder rate in what is essentially a gun free city
Excuse me, but how many rounds of ammunition did James Holmes actually use to injure and kill those people in that theater? How many rounds are actually used in most crimes involving firearms? "Thousands"? May I ask what is the real motive for this kind of legislation?...
"make it harder for dangerous people [and all of us non-dangerous people as well] to buy... ammunition online."
they fear being shot
Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, James Wright and Peter
Rossi, Aldine, 1986
So Danny, I will keep my firearm and you can go without, it is called freedom, and you have no right to tell me what is good for me or my family
Citing a petty tyrant that demands to tell adults how big a cup they are allowed to drink out of and wants to insert himself into feeding decisions of mothers with newborns is not going to help your credibility, Danny. What is it about gun controllers that forces them to want to dictate every detail to their fellow citizens?
Bad ideas are worse than no ideas. Keep that in mind.
So you advocate that cops should carry rolled up socks instead of guns?
wow
Despite the wildly hyperbolic lamentations about our "violence obsessed gun culture", homicide is (this may be surprising to some) not even among the dozen leading causes of death in the US. I say this not to dismiss the tragedy and heartbreak wrought by incidents of gun violence, but to illuminate the fact that the topic of gun violence is given extraordinary attention by the media. Those of us who possess the other 99.94% ( a significant majority ) of the nation's guns, including vast numbers of semi-automatics with "large capacity" magazines, are apparently not using our guns to perpetrate acts of violence or for other perverted purposes. Banning classes of firearms and ammunition feeding devices may feel good to some of us, but would have a clear impact of eroding the Second Amendment and would likely have an impercptible impact in reducing the overall occurence homicide.