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Earlier this month we witnessed a tragic shooting in
Tucson, AZ, leaving 6 dead, and 20 others — including Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords — injured. While rhetoric from the far-fight that feeds distrust and
hatred towards our politicians (especially among the mentally ill) needs to be
called out and countered, another factor jumps out. Someone like Jared Lee
Loughner should never have been able to buy a gun.
We already have laws that make it illegal for
criminals and the mentally ill to purchase guns. But a broken background check
system and wide enforcement loopholes -- kept in place by the gun lobby and the
National Rifle Association (NRA) -- have made it difficult to keep guns out of
the wrong hands. It's time to close these gaps once and for all. You can
help.
Please join us, along with Mayors Against Illegal
Guns and others, in making it clear to politicians that everyday Americans
support common sense reform and will stand with them if they lead in
keeping guns from the most dangerous among us; and please ask your friends and
family to join as well. It takes just a moment:
Two commonsense reforms could prevent future
tragedies. First, we should ensure that all the names of people who should be
prohibited from buying a gun are entered into the background check system. Then
we must close the loopholes that allow people to purchase guns with no
background check at all. It sounds easy — but the powerful gun lobby, led by the
NRA, has stood in opposition.
The attempted assassination of a member of Congress
has frightening implications for our political culture that we should take very
seriously. But we should also take this moment to remember that dozens of
ordinary people are murdered with guns every day.
It’s a problem that everyone should care about
solving — but it disproportionately affects Black, poor, and other disadvantaged
communities. Black men are 9 times more likely than white men to be murdered
with guns. In too many Black communities across the country, gun violence is a
constant danger.
The danger is fueled by the easy availability of guns
for those who are legally prohibited from possessing them. And it is so easy for
dangerous people to puchase guns because of deep flaws in the systems meant to
prevent this from ever occurring. One problem is that those who should be
prohibited from buying guns, such as felons and the mentally ill, don’t always
make it into the federal background check database. That means gun stores who
are trying to follow the law may inadvertently sell guns to dangerous people.
But perhaps more troubling, there are huge loopholes
in the law that allow people to bypass background checks altogether. For
instance, in the well-known “gun show loophole,” anyone can purchase deadly
automatic weapons — weapons designed to kill as many people as possible as
quickly as possible — from a gun show with no background check whatsoever.
If any lesson is to be taken from the tragic events
in Tucson, it is that these gaps can have deadly consequences. Now, with growing
public support for change, there is a unique opportunity to strengthen America’s
gun laws to keep these weapons out of the wrong hands.
Please stand with us and our partners at Mayors
Against Illegal Guns in asking Congress to do just that. And when you do, please
ask your friends and family to do the same.
Thanks and Peace,
-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha and the
rest of the ColorOfChange.org team, January 25th, 2011
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