A horrible, familiar feeling crept over me as I saw the breaking news about a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011.
When it became clear that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was among the wounded, the coverage went into overdrive. Over several agonizing hours, we learned that six people were killed and thirteen more were injured by a deeply troubled young man who should never have had a gun. It was another one of those days in America when everyone has their eyes locked on a television, wondering the same thing: how could this have happened again?
The simple answer is that this happens again and again because Washington refuses to do anything about loopholes in the law that put guns in the hands of killers.
We all watched as Tucson joined the list of well-known tragedies: Columbine... Fort Hood... Virginia Tech...
For me and my family, the sharp pain of Virginia Tech came back in an instant. My sister Reema was killed on April 16, 2007 along with 31 other people because a gap in Virginia's gun background check system allowed a young man with serious mental illness to buy guns.
For years, I have worked with other Virginia Tech families to call for action to fix these gaps in the law. But after Tucson, when the consequences of inaction in Washington were once again made so clear, I knew it was time to make an even bigger statement.
I decided to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Fix Gun Checks campaign. Please take a minute to watch this video of our cross-country tour:
We drove coast-to-coast, meeting with other families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. We brought along a billboard truck that called attention to a hard, bitter truth: 34 Americans are murdered with guns every single day.
To many people we met, that was a surprising and sobering fact: each and every day, more Americans are murdered with guns than were killed at Virginia Tech. That daily death toll adds up to more than 10,000 Americans killed just since Tucson.
Along the way, I met many Americans, from all walks of life, affected by gun violence: mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles. There is no one that is immune to gun violence.
I met a family from Pennsylvania whose 18 month old son was murdered in his car seat, while they filled up the tank, at a gas station.
In Chicago, I met a mother whose honor student never made it home from school because he shielded a friend from a bullet on a city bus.
I met a University of Iowa administrator who was present during the shootings there 20 years ago. As she shared her experience with me, it was like it just happened the day before.
Their stories are heartbreaking - but their courage is overwhelming. They are part of a huge and growing chorus of Americans calling for action.
During the tour, we gathered petition signatures from more than 350,000 Americans urging Congress to close the loopholes that allow dangerous people to get their hands on guns.
Now, we're preparing to deliver this campaign's message to Washington - and I'm asking you to join us.
Have a look at the video we made. Share it with your family and friends. Ask them to visit www.fixgunchecks.org/tour and join you in signing the petition calling on Washington to finally close the huge gaps in our gun laws.
We can save lives by coming together to tell Congress it's finally time to fix our broken gun background check system.
The author is a proud member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Kudos to him for joining a criminal organization that willfully violates federal firearms laws, utiizes public money to civilly bankrupt small business owners, counts three dozen felons amongst it's leadership and activley seeks ways around the Congress of the United States to impose their agenda of disarming the American People.
The author's sister died because her school refused to allow her to protect herself. The author's new employer gladly rejoices whenever mass murders of disarmed innocents occurs. Gun Control Polices as advocated by MAIG and the Brady Center worked exactly as designed in Columbine, Fort Hood and Va-Tech.
The definition of Insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again and expect to get a different result. Disarming the law abiding makes them victims. The irony is now the author is a 'professional' victim. He gets a paycheck to advocate disarming the innocent.
Healthcare proffesionals.
The "gap" which allowed the Tuscon gunman to purchase his firearm occured because the legal system and mental health system was never properly engaged. Passing more laws is unlikely to change this.
There was no gap in the Ft Hood case.
The people who purchased the firearms used at the Columbine shooting would have passed any background check.
Awesome, good plan.
2. Require a background check for every gun sale in America.
Not possible. Not a good plan. Making it illegal to complete a private sale will not prevent a crime as the government cannot monitor every private interaction. The idea sounds good on paper, but it doesn't work in real life.
"[The "gun show loophole"] has been exploited by terrorists, drug cartels, and murderers, including the shooters at Columbine High School"
I'm not aware of a terrorist completing a firearm purchase in the United States at a gun show. Drug cartels certainly can buy from gun shows, and most likely have, it isn't as efficient as straw purchasing. Few of the murder weapons in the United States come from gun show purchases. Those that do are straw purchases. The Columbine shooters did not purchase from a private seller. They had an older buyer straw purchase the weapons for them. MAIG bounces between good ideas and the loony rhetoric of the BC and VPC. Every state that "closed the gun show loophole" has seen no decreased violent crime. Nor have private sales been deterred.
Although they are listed as steps instead of a platform. Hopefully MAIG has the wisdom to work toward Step 1, even if Step 2 is wholly unattainable.
in this , you are quite naieve!
That's how 2000+ semi-automatic rifles made their way to Mexican Drug Cartels. There has been similar government-assisted smuggling to gangs in Honduras. And a similar program to sell firearms to gangs in Chicago.
So how much good do you think all the gun control in the world is going to do when it's the government breaking the law and the government arming the bad guys?
BTW, that's how nearly 1 million Tutsis were slaughtered. The Hutu controlled government provided machine guns and mortars to groups who then rounded up Tutsis and hacked them to death with machetes or gunned them down if they ran. That's how gun control works, folks.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/10/heroic-guard-it-was-just-me-gunman-and-god/
Firearms are used approximately 2.5 million times each year to prevent crime or to save lives. ("Targeting Guns," Dr. Gary Kleck, 1997)
Even the anti-gun media prints some of them.
There are over 20,000 federal firearms laws. How many more laws do people think it would take to stop people from breaking them? Murder is punishable by either life in prison or death yet there are murders daily.