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A Tipping Point on Guns
http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/07/02/eyes-on-the-prize-gun-control-advocates-see-success-on-the-horizon
Meaningful reform of gun laws, he (Obama) told reporters just after the Charleston shooting, "is not going to happen in this Congress."
While likely true, Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, thinks the reform the president seeks is closer than any time since Adam Lanza burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and opened fire that tragic December day. If you take the long view, he says, real change is unmistakably on the horizon – even if the bloodshed in Charleston makes it harder for Obama and others to see.
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Yet Gross and other gun-control advocates say that, after decades of uphill fights against the NRA – arguably the wealthiest, most powerful political organization in America – their side has quickly reached more level ground in a much longer war. Grassroots support is surging through organization and fundraising, they say, politicians are heeding their money if not their message, and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was the catalyst.
"I don't think that 'resurrection' is the right term because I don't think anything has died. In fact, it's only grown in momentum since the terrible tragedy in Sandy Hook," Gross said. "There hasn't been this much momentum behind the reforms that we seek, which is around background checks, in decades."
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"Sarah looked at me and basically told me to buck up," Gross says. "She said two things: sometimes it takes a good loss – and what she meant is this is an opportunity to really demonstrate to the American public the extent to which our elected public leaders aren't doing right by us – and she also reminded me what it took: The Brady Bill [which mandated background checks] didn't pass that first time."
That's the cause for his optimism, Gross says: James Brady was shot in 1981, and it took Congress six votes over seven years before former President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993. His message to naysayers who doubt the Charleston shooting will have an impact is the same he heard from Sarah Brady: Buck up.
Meaningful reform of gun laws, he (Obama) told reporters just after the Charleston shooting, "is not going to happen in this Congress."
While likely true, Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, thinks the reform the president seeks is closer than any time since Adam Lanza burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and opened fire that tragic December day. If you take the long view, he says, real change is unmistakably on the horizon – even if the bloodshed in Charleston makes it harder for Obama and others to see.
====
Yet Gross and other gun-control advocates say that, after decades of uphill fights against the NRA – arguably the wealthiest, most powerful political organization in America – their side has quickly reached more level ground in a much longer war. Grassroots support is surging through organization and fundraising, they say, politicians are heeding their money if not their message, and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was the catalyst.
"I don't think that 'resurrection' is the right term because I don't think anything has died. In fact, it's only grown in momentum since the terrible tragedy in Sandy Hook," Gross said. "There hasn't been this much momentum behind the reforms that we seek, which is around background checks, in decades."
====
"Sarah looked at me and basically told me to buck up," Gross says. "She said two things: sometimes it takes a good loss – and what she meant is this is an opportunity to really demonstrate to the American public the extent to which our elected public leaders aren't doing right by us – and she also reminded me what it took: The Brady Bill [which mandated background checks] didn't pass that first time."
That's the cause for his optimism, Gross says: James Brady was shot in 1981, and it took Congress six votes over seven years before former President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993. His message to naysayers who doubt the Charleston shooting will have an impact is the same he heard from Sarah Brady: Buck up.
Gun violence is becoming an issue that Jane and John Voter are becoming aware of. Sure, big events like Sandy Hook and Charleston crank everybody up for awhile, but the daily one-at-a-time tragedies is rising in our national awareness. The continued inaction of our legislators in the face of 30,000 deaths a year, 100,000 injuries and an estimated cost of $200 Trillion (yeah, with a T) to the economy it is an issue that should be on par with income inequality, failed wars and corpratocracy. We can do more than one thing at a time.
I see it in political cartoons even when there aren't mass shootings, I see it here on DU with more and more posts about gun violence, I see it in the Primary discussions and I see it in everyday conversations with people around me.
Perhaps not now and not tomorrow but someday. We are Sandy Hook. We are Aurora. We are Charleston. AND WE'RE NOT GOING AWAY.
Support a gun control group of your choice.
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