A Call to Action from Paul Helmke
President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the
Brady Campaign with its network of Million Mom March Chapters
Dear *****,
Following are excerpts taken from a very moving speech given by Paul Helmke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Please read Paul's remarks and follow the links to view more and help spread the word.
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View highlights from Paul's speech at the National Press Club.
Email this speech to your Congressional delegation.
There were 32 people murdered at Virginia Tech.
That number, in and of itself, was not extraordinary. Every day in our country, on average, about 32 people are murdered with guns. When you add suicides and unintentional shootings, the death toll from guns in America each day is about 80 people. And for every death, there are another two or three seriously injured.
The gun epidemic is our monthly 9/11, our weekly Katrina, a continuing Iraq war on our streets and in our schools. It is our daily Virginia Tech. Yet, we don’t focus on this threat until we get a Virginia Tech.
And then we allow our political leaders to slowly and deliberately delay, until we are all busy with other challenges. And then our leaders let us down, content that we’re no longer paying attention.
To say that we are sorry that these shootings happened is not enough. We should be ashamed all of us should be ashamed that we have allowed this to happen. We must all say to the victims at Virginia Tech and their families, and to the families of gun violence victims every day: we have failed you. All of us. We can do better.
What can we do about gun violence?
There are many things we can do to prevent gun violence. Here are three policy proposals:
1. We must comprehensively and effectively apply the Brady background check system, so no one who we want to prohibit from buying guns can legally buy one.
Effective background checks would have stopped the Virginia Tech killer from buying these guns.
2. We must reduce access to weaponry that is not for sport and not for self-defense.
Had Congress and the President not allowed the assault weapon ban to expire, the killer may not have been able to obtain the high capacity magazines he used in his assault.
3. We must give our police and federal law enforcement the tools and resources they need to fight gun crimes, including illegal gun trafficking and corrupt gun dealers.
New technologies, such as microstamping and other ballistic identification systems, might have allowed authorities to identify the Virginia Tech shooter earlier, before his second, most deadly, rampage.
Gun violence prevention should not be controversial. The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that gun violence is a huge problem. And most Americans believe that we should have tougher gun laws. Most Americans, including most gun owners, support the policy proposals I've suggested.
We intend to hold our political leaders accountable if they fail to take action, Democrats and Republicans alike.
There are other things that we, at the Brady Center and the Brady Campaign with our Million Mom March Chapters, are going to do. To start, we need a national conversation about our gun problem. We need to ask elected officials and each other: what are you going to do about it?
All Americans have the responsibility to join this national conversation, and become part of the solution to the gun violence problem.
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You can help build the national dialogue by emailing your Congressional delegation a link to Paul's speech — ask them "What are YOU going to do about gun violence?" and let them know that doing nothing is not an option.
And look for email alerts from us about specific gun violence prevention legislation that will be coming before Congress. More to come . . .
Sincerely,
Sarah Brady, Chair
This in today:
I need to go target shoot quick before it gets worse!!!