Besides information, great speechs and marching (See Part 1), there was a lot of information being shared at the park. For those who weren’t able to attend, or didn’t have a chance to see it, we’ve attached it below.
California – New gun laws for 2018. (Sacbee)
California gun laws (Giffords)
Parents (and grandparents) Promise to Kids
The goal of Parents Promise to Kids (PPTK) is to get parents to vote for candidates who believe that the safety of our children is much more important than the right to own guns. We urge parents, grandparents and other concerned adults to sign a contract, found below and then post it on social media with the included instructions. The contract is a promise to kids that they will never leave their homes in fear of being attacked by people with assault weapons.
The Parkland student’s presription for gun safety
1. Mandating universal background checks
Requiring that every gun buyer undergo a background check — including for transactions between friends, through private sellers at a gun show, and arranged online — has for years been an overwhelmingly popular policy idea, according to a Quinnipiac poll. The survey found support for universal background checks at 97 percent among both general respondents and members of gun-owning households. Ten states with Democratic governors and at least one Democratic-controlled legislative chamber already have universal or expanded background checks. However, more funding is necessary to staff the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) system to make this work.
2. Banning high-capacity ammunition magazines
Many rampage shootings, and a growing number of gun homicides and assaults in some cities, are carried out with firearms that can fire a dozen or more times before reloading. The more shots an assailant can get off, the greater the general odds of casualties. That’s why experts we’ve interviewed conclude that limiting how many rounds an ammunition magazine can hold, more so than outlawing assault-style rifles, may be more effective in reducing overall gun violence. Roughly two thirds of Americans support restricting the size of ammunition magazines, but just eight states and the District of Columbia require this.
3. Banning assault-style weapons
Rifles like the AR-15 have been the means of many mass shootings. They’re much less rarely used in everyday gun violence. The Parkland activists, who’ve taken numerous steps to build an inclusive movement, ground their case against assault-style weapons not in terms of a ban’s potential reduction in total shootings, but instead around the question of whether any civilian needs a “weapon of war.”
4. Funding federal gun violence research
One estimate holds that research on gun violence is underfunded by more than $1 billion, relative to other common causes of death. The shortfall is commonly attributed to the notorious 1996 Dickey Amendment, which forbade the CDC from funding research that can be seen as promoting gun control. CDC leaders, interpreting the stricture conservatively, have authorized almost no studies of gun violence at all in the ensuing 22 years. However, Parkland activists may be able to claim their first win: Language clarifying that the CDC is allowed to conduct studies of gun violence was included in the omnibus spending bill that lawmakers passed last week. However, “permission” is not the same as “funded“. Incoming Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar has signaled his openness to federally funded gun violence research, saying his agency is in the “evidence-generating business.”
5. Digitizing gun purchase records, so crime guns are easier to trace.
Until two years ago, federally licensed firearms dealers (or FFLs) could not keep digital sales records without first getting permission from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. A rule change in April 2016 brought gun retailers into the twenty-first century. But they’re still not required to maintain digital records. And other hurdles remain: By law, the ATF may not maintain a registry of guns, gun sales, or gun owners, and the scans of gun store records that the ATF creates at its national tracing center must be left “non-searchable”: investigators can pull up the files pertaining to a given store, but then they have to flip through individual documents chronologically until they locate the record they are seeking.
The Brady 3-point Plan – Turn your Outrage Into Action
1. Brady background checks on all guns sales
We recommend the completion of a Brady Background check on every gun sold. Those convicted of gun crimes, assault, or domestic violence should no longer be able to purchase guns without passing a background check in any state, no loopholes and no exceptions. Guns should not be sold if a background check is still pending. While some states have expanded their background checks, approximately half of the population still lives in states without these common-sense laws. Dangerous exceptions to the system that allow private sales to take place without conducting a background check at gun shows or via online sites put all Americans at risk.
Learn More About Background Check Legislation
- Brady’s ERPO Fact Sheet
- ERPO Myths vs. Facts
- Comparison of State Enacted ERPO Laws
- Fact Sheet for S. 1212 & H.R. 2598, S. 2521
- Fact Sheet for S. 1212 & H.R. 2598, S. 2521
Veterans for Peace
END THE GUN VIOLENCE, AT HOME AND ABROAD!
An Urgent Message from Veterans For Peace
(Abridged – See full version here)
As veterans who have been traumatized by the violence of war, we were shocked and saddened by the recent mass murder of 17 high school students in Parkland, Florida. This horrible slaughter, carried out by a troubled young man with a military assault rifle, would be tragic enough if it were a freak occurrence. But sadly, this appalling event is part of a well-established pattern – an unchecked epidemic of mass killings in the U.S.
Veterans For Peace wants to share with all those who share a sense of urgency that something must be done.
- Military assault weapons should be banned.
- High capacity ammo magazines too.
- Thorough background checks should be required of all those wishing to purchase firearms, without exceptions.
- We must work to support these young folks and others who have been engaged to continue getting to the root of the epidemic of violence.
- We must also take steps to rein in racist police killings and to change the violent, hyper-masculine culture in this country.
- We must demilitarize U.S. society, and reverse the violent U.S. foreign policy which is causing death and destruction in too many countries.
- We must address domestic violence and suicide.
- We must ask who is benefiting from flooding U.S. urban and rural communities with guns?
- Are they the same manufactures and investors that gain from global arms sales that ensures gun violence around the world?
The toll of this violence on our society, on the working class men and women who are pressed into fighting the nation’s wars, as well as the violence the U.S. government exports and kills innocent people around the world is tragic and intolerable. It must end.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 