FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2017
Boston, MA – Today 25 congregants were murdered and many others were wounded in their house of worship in Sutherland Springs, Texas. While the details of this latest mass shooting continue to emerge, Stop Handgun Violence founder John Rosenthal made the following statement:
“While the magnitude of this massacre is yet unknown, we do know that Texas has some of the weakest gun laws in the nation. Any would-be mass shooter can purchase any quantity of any weapon and ammunition, without a background check from a private seller. Our national gun policy is no better as it allows unrestricted access to military style assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips, and these irresponsible public policies have deadly consequences. Congress and the President are responsible for dangerous gun policies that make mass shootings and 91 Americans dead from gun violence a daily occurrence in the US.
“Congress took zero action when 26 died at Sandy Hook, 32 died at Virginia Tech, 70 were injured at Aurora, 107 injured at Orlando and over 500 were injured in Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs lost 7% of their population today. How many others will be shot and killed in vain? Congress and the president continue to send prayers while working to make deadly weapons more available without background checks or detection by law enforcement. Clearly Congress and the President care more about gun lobby blood money campaign contributions than public health and safety from preventable gun violence.
“Right now, Trump and the gun lobby are pushing legislation through Congress that would undermine and dismantle the concealed carry permitting system of each state and a second bill that would deregulate silencers and make it easy to kill without detection. We reap what we sow and must work together to defeat these bills. We must instead pass legislation to protect Americans, like urban Massachusetts has done on a bipartisan basis, achieving the lowest gun death rate in the nation.”
Click here to email your Massachusetts state Representative, telling them we need concrete action to prevent gun violence.
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Stop Handgun Violence (SHV) is a Massachusetts based non-profit organization committed to the prevention of gun violence through education, public awareness, effective law enforcement and common sense gun laws. SHV has been the lead advocate in Massachusetts for enactment of the most effective gun violence prevention laws and first in the nation consumer protection regulations. The organization does not seek to restrict Constitutional rights, but advocates only for common sense legislation that will help save lives. For more information, go to www.stophandgunviolence.org