March For Our Lives–Lansing, June 11 Wear Orange–June 3
This Friday is National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the start of Wear Orange Weekend. We need to join together and demand a future free from gun violence once and for all.
When Will We Ever Learn
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As educators and health care workers we believe in facts. We teach them, we use them to care for patients. As we decide what must be done to stop the murdering of our children, our neighbors, our co-workers, our families, our friends we should look at the facts.
The Facts*
1. Shattered parents and gun control advocates went into action in 1996 after a former Scoutmaster fatally shot 16 children and their teacher at an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland. After they battled to effectively ban handguns for civilians in the U.K. (automatic weapons were outlawed after a previous mass killing), there hasn’t been another mass school shooting in the U.K. since.
2. According to a New York University School of Medicine study, mass shooting deaths fell after the 1994 Assault Weapon Federal Ban and tripled in the ten years after the ban expired. (Politifact.com)
3. According to National Public Radio:
- 100 Number of people killed by guns in the U.S., every day
- 12 Number of children who die every day from gun violence in the U.S.
- 950 School shootings since Sandy Hook, including 27 school shootings so far this year
- 8 million Number of AR-15s and its variation in circulation
- 89 Percent of gun owners who favor preventing the “mentally ill” from purchasing guns
- 77 Percent of gun owners who favor background checks at private sales and gun shows
- 79 Percent of murders that involved a firearm
- <1 Percentage of people who defended themselves with their guns in violent crimes
4. Right after the Uvalde murders of 19 children and two teachers Michigan Senate Democrats tried to pass a bill that would require the safe storage of firearms. The Republican majority stopped them.
5. With 227 Democrats and one Republican voting in support, earlier this Congressional session the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would require background checks on all gun purchases The overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans, support this measure. Right after the Uvalde murders, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) addressing Republican Senators, stated: “Please, please, please, damn it, put yourself in the shoes of these parents for once.” Senator Schumer’s comments were in the context of the Democrats supporting gun control legislation, that the Republican Senators continually block.
When advocating for candidates, when voting this November please keep these facts in mind.
*Sources include Gongwer, National Public Radio, Newsweek, the Huffington Post and our sources.
Michigan Gun Laws
| This link from Everytown Research outlines Michigan’s gun laws https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/michigan/ |
Advance Column on Gun Control
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A few months back our monthly column in the Michigan Advance addressed the issue of gun violence and needed gun control.
In solidarity,
David Hecker
President
