Media Highlights
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ICYMI — Associated Press: Gun Lobby-Backed State Legislatures Roll Back Gun Laws Despite Law Enforcement Opposition, Risk to Public and Police Officers
In several states with gun lobby backed state legislatures and Republican majorities, lawmakers have passed laws to weaken gun safety laws — and they’ve done so in spite of aggressive, vocal opposition from local law enforcement who have raised the alarm about the danger that rolling back training and permitting requirements for carrying a concealed gun in public poses to the public and to police officers, according the Associated Press. “There is something of a disjunction between repeating the political slogan of ‘back the blue’ versus supporting policies that rank-and-file police and leaders of police organizations actually…
Forbes: How Shannon Watts Says You Can Be A Mom And Advocate During Coronavirus
“After Sandy Hook, I felt I had to do something,” Ms. Watts explained. “It’s gun violence that kills 100 Americans a day, Black and Latino Americans represent the majority of gun homicide victims, and in an average month, 53 American women are shot to death by a partner. I have watched this issue in this country for too long and incredulous that no one was doing anything. As Alice Walker once said, ‘Activism is my rent for living on the planet.’ Fighting for gun safety became my rent!” Read the full article here.
New York Times: Bloomberg’s Gun Control Group Pours $15 Million Into Races in 8 States
“No question about it, the N.R.A. has never been weaker,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “It’s fair to say they are going to be spending more money on legal fees than they are digital or TV ads this cycle.”…
Ohio Statehouse News Bureau: “Gun Control Group Opposes Bill That Cuts Training Requirements For Armed Teachers”
“Allowing school staff to carry firearms in school is dangerous. Allowing this to happen without extensive training and ongoing training is irresponsible,” Lane said.
Essence: New Poll Shows Black Voters Still Strongly Support Gun Violence Prevention
“Black Americans are bearing the brunt of both gun violence and police violence, which are often one and the same, so it’s no surprise that both of these issues are front of mind,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety said in the press release. “Over the coming months, Everytown will go all-out to elect candidates who understand that passing long-overdue gun safety laws is an essential step toward protecting Black lives.”…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: McCloskeys’ lack of weapons discipline underscores a gun-rights problem
“I’ve made a living carrying a weapon professionally on and off for my entire adult life. By the standards in which I was instructed, and by those same standards that I have striven to impart to shooters I have instructed, the McCloskeys violated basic weapons safety principles. Violating those principles can cost lives.” Read the full article here.
Salon: NRA’s silence on police violence is deafening — its members’ attacks on Black victims are worse
“The NRA claims to be a ‘civil rights’ organization, but their officials have spent the last month defending Confederate monuments while comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the Nazi Party and ISIS,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement to Salon. “That tells you everything you need to know about whose ‘civil rights’ the NRA really cares about.” Read the full article here.
ABC News: COVID-19’s impact could include 20 more firearm suicides per day this year, analysis shows
The study comes from the research arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a non profit organization which advocates for gun control. Researchers at Everytown looked back at prior crises that led to massive unemployment, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession that ended in 2010. The Great Recession, for example, led to an estimated 4,750 additional deaths by suicide — though not all specifically by firearms. Based on Everytown’s research of the impacts of unemployment on suicide from past recessions, the researchers estimate this economic downturn could lead to a 20 to 30% increase…
Washington Post: The pandemic has not stopped our other epidemic: Gun violence
“In the midst of this unprecedented coronavirus pandemic and the surge in gun sales it has brought, we need our laws to meet the moment,” Moss wrote. “We need a federal law requiring background checks on all gun sales, similar to the one Moms Demand Action volunteers just worked so hard to pass in my home state of Virginia.”…
Topeka Capital Journal: ‘Say their names’ candlelight vigil draws crowd, awareness
“Me being a mother who has lost a child to gun violence, I think people who use guns to take lives don’t really think about what they are doing.” Boyd said. “Because if they did they wouldn’t do it because they don’t really understand the pain and the destruction that they’ll cause.”…
Atlanta Journal Constitution: 10 Georgia mayors ask Legislature to repeal ‘Stand Your Ground’ law
“So-called ‘stand your ground’ laws encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later, and they enable these killers to get away scot free — especially when they kill Black people,” Billingslea said.
Union Leader: Robin Skudlarek: New laws would help prevent mass shootings
“Right now, our state senators and the governor have the opportunity to save lives. There is legislation in front of them that would offer a smart approach to confronting gun violence in the state. With gun deaths from suicide in New Hampshire continuing to rise, our lawmakers need to pass comprehensive extreme risk legislation. No more families should have to go through what mine had to.”…
Iowa Starting Line: Everytown Ad: Iowa GOP ‘Weakens’ Gun Laws With Preemption Bill
“At a time when Iowans are demanding leadership on not one but three crises — gun violence, racism, and coronavirus — lawmakers have instead prioritized gun lobby priorities over common-sense gun safety legislation,” Kennedy said in a statement. “We have no choice but to hold them accountable in November.”…
Medium: Americans Want Gun Safety and This Is The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes — Six Things I Learned From National Security Advisor Susan Rice
Gun violence survivors push us forward. June is an important month for gun violence survivors. It’s when we marked National Gun Violence Awareness Day and gathered for Wear Orange weekend to honor the more than 100 Americans who are shot and killed on average each day, as well as the hundreds more who are shot and wounded. On June 12, survivors and families marked four years since the horrific shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 58 more, many of them LGBTQ and Latino.
The Raleigh News & Observer: Bloomberg group ads hit Trump, Tillis, North Carolina GOP
“North Carolina could decide the presidency and the balance of the Senate, and it’s why we’re going to go all in with our most significant investment and effort ever,” said Charlie Kelly, a senior adviser for Everytown for Gun Safety.
WPRI – Providence (CBS): Raimondo to signs ‘ghost gun’ bill into law
“Easy access to ghost guns undermines our gun laws, putting us all at risk,” founder of Moms Demand Action Shannon Watts said. “After years of advocacy, Rhode Island Moms Demand Action volunteers helped see this life-saving legislation across the finish line.”…
USA Today: My mom was killed in the Mother Emanuel church shooting. We must disarm racism and hate.
“This is the time to address these problems –– by protesting, by voting, by addressing loopholes like the one that killed my mom and cousins five years ago and by dismantling the systems of oppression that African American communities face every day. But like so many of these problems that kill Black people in America, the Charleston loophole has gone unaddressed –– even as the other victims’ families and I have continually called out for action.” Read the full article here.
Courthouse News: New Jersey Gun Rights Case Sidelined by Supreme Court
“Opponents of gun safety laws have again failed in their efforts to get the Supreme Court to adopt their extreme and dangerous approach,” said Eric Tirschwell, an attorney and managing director at Everytown Law, the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. …
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Tragedies trigger mothers’ dedication to gun safety
“Gun violence in America is not a simple issue and because it’s not a simple issue it will not have a simple answer,” Fletcher says. “There isn’t one law or two laws or anything that can be passed and done, gun violence is over. It’s a multi-faceted problem and, therefore, we believe that it takes a multi-faceted approach.”…
The Advocate: On Pulse Anniversary, a Call for LGBTQ+ Support for Gun Reform
“Fifty-one years after a Black trans woman led an uprising against police discrimination and violence at the Stonewall Inn, the LGBTQ community — and especially trans people of color — are still the targets of hate-fueled violence, which often involves a gun,” added John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This year, Everytown renews our commitment to disarming hate and pushing federal lawmakers to close the giant loophole that allows people convicted of violent or threatening hate crimes to buy guns.”…
Parents: The Story Behind National Gun Violence Awareness Day is About Saving Black Lives
“Hadiya has inspired a movement of thousands of Americans to wear orange with the belief that we can and must end gun violence. It would be awesome to share with her what has been accomplished in her absence. But when remembering our daughter, who was smart, athletic, a fierce friend, a loving sister, daughter, and much more, we are not surprised that she has had such an impact on the world. She often declared that she would be a household name—but who knew at what cost.”…
HuffPost: Sen. Susan Collins Loses Endorsement Of Major Gun Control Group
“A vote for Sara Gideon is a vote against Mitch McConnell, who has made the Senate the place where desperately needed gun safety bills go to die,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. He praised Gideon for having “walked the walk” on tightening Maine’s gun laws while serving in the legislature.
How Stuff Works: What Are Ghost Guns and Why Are They So Dangerous?
“We don’t think it is complicated,” Wilcox says. “A gun is a gun, whether it’s made from a kit, or purchased fully assembled. It causes the same harm in the wrong hands.”…
Tennessean: Exclusive: 86 Tennessee business owners voice opposition to permitless carry bill
“Frank Grant, owner of Nashville-based Grant Ventures, started the letter, which grew from communication among business leaders with some assistance from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, a group that lobbies for gun control. The letter is also supported by Everytown for Gun Safety, a national nonprofit that advocates for more thorough background checks and education in an effort to reduce gun violence.”…
