Edited by: TJVNews.com
With protests planned for Saturday after the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Buffalo, New York, gun control advocates hope to intensify pressure on Congress to pass laws and additional funding for research to help curb the growing violence, according to an AP report.
The gun violence epidemic has gripped the country as gruesome mass shootings have exponentially increased and the incidences of violent crime has spiraled out of control in major US cities.
Protesters say they’re prepared to use philanthropic money and their own fundraising to support their advocacy until public attention forces meaningful changes.
AP reported that Noah Lumbantobing, a spokesman for March for Our Lives, says he’s seen the strategy succeed before.
After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, that killed 17, students formed the anti-gun violence group and led mass protests across the country. The AP reported that In response, former President Donald Trump’s administration banned bump stocks, which was the accessory a shooter used to kill scores at a country music festival in Las Vegas the previous year.
“Trump is not our friend — we know that,” Lumbantobing said, speaking through the din of protests outside the National Rifle Association convention in Houston last month. “He’s not our political ally, but the temperature in the country got so high he couldn’t ignore us.”
This time, March for Our Lives and other gun control groups plan to mobilize supporters to push Congress to require universal background checks, pass red flag laws allowing guns to be confiscated in certain cases and raise the age limit to buy certain guns, as was reported by the AP.
“If it wasn’t for the movement, I would not have any faith in politicians,” Lumbantobing, 26, who is based in New York, told The Associated Press. “But given that the movement is so strong and it’s so clear that it is so strong, I think something will happen.”
The AP report indicated that in a speech last week, President Joe Biden proposed numerous reforms, including restoring a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as implementing background checks and red flag laws. At the same time, he made clear he recognizes that Republican opposition makes it unlikely that most of those changes will become law.
“I know how hard it is,” he said. “But I’ll never give up. And if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people won’t give up either,” Biden said.
In response to Biden’s comments on gun violence last week, the National Rifle Association issued a press release which stated that they have “long supported securing our schools so that our teachers and children will be safe. We support strict enforcement of all our nation’s laws that target violent criminals. We support prosecution and punishment of criminals who break these laws. Indeed, the NRA supports the arrest, prosecution and punishment of any violent criminal or other dangerous prohibited person who tries to purchase or possess a firearm.”
The nation’s largest and most influential gun lobby added: “We support fully funding law-enforcement agencies. And, we wholeheartedly support the right of any law-abiding American to defend themselves and their loved ones. Even though it’s rarely reported, more than a million law abiding Americans use firearms in self-defense every year – most without ever firing a shot.
The NRA added: “What we don’t support are senseless policies like no-cash bail that create a revolving door justice system that only endangers good citizens. And, we will fight any proposal that will disarm law-abiding Americans.
And, America does have a critical mental health crisis. Many are sick, too few people are able to recognize their illness, and even less get help. The sad reality is there are too few resources for those who need it. Over the last 60 years, the number of beds available at psychiatric hospitals in America has dropped by 96 percent. In 1955, there were an estimated 340 beds per 100,000 people with mental health illnesses. In 2016, that number fell to 11.7 beds per 100,000 people. We must find a way to reach these people before they hurt themselves or others. And, we must fund places for these people to find refuge and treatment.”
The AP reported that on Monday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that he does not support restricting firearms or strengthening gun control laws in response to recent mass shootings in Tennessee and around the country.
Instead, Lee joined the growing list of Republican governors who are stressing the need for more security at schools with the governor signing an executive order calling for enhancing safety measures that does not mention the word gun once, according to the AP report.
The directive largely encourages schools to continue to implement current school safety laws, directs state agencies to issue guidance on to improve school building security, and calls for law enforcement agencies to promote more people to join law enforcement careers.
“We’re not looking at gun restriction laws in my administration right now. There’s one thing to remember, criminals don’t follow the laws. Criminals break laws,” Lee told reporters, according to the AP. “We can’t control what we can’t control.”
Surveys show that most U.S. adults think mass shootings would occur less often if guns were harder to get and believe that schools and other public places have become less safe than they were two decades ago, polling finds, as was reported by the AP.
Nonprofits, community groups and advocacy organizations say they have gained insight into why gun violence occurs and how to reduce it, including interventions that don’t require legislation.
Increasing funding for research, investing in frontline organizations working to prevent gun violence, donating to advocacy groups and taking part in mass movements, advocates say, can help reduce shooting deaths and injuries.
The AP reported on Monday that New Yorkers under age 21 will be prohibited from buying semiautomatic rifles under a new law signed Governor Kathy Hochul, making the state among the first to enact a major gun control initiative following a wave of deadly mass shootings.
Hochul, a Democrat, who is running for re-election, signed 10 public safety-related bills, including one that will require microstamping in new firearms, which could help law enforcement solve gun-related crimes, according to the AP report.
Another revised the state’s “red flag” law, which allows courts to temporarily take away guns from people who might be a threat to themselves or others.
“In New York, we are taking bold, strong action. We’re tightening red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people,” Hochul said at a press conference in the Bronx om Monday. The Bronx and other New York City boroughs have been plagued with a dramatic spike in violent crime on its streets and especially on the city’s subway system.
New York’s Legislature passed the bills last week, pushing the changes through after a pair of mass shootings involving 18-year-old gunmen using semiautomatic rifles, according to the AP report. Ten Black people died in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket May 14. A Texas school shooting took the lives of 19 children and two teachers 10 days later.
Also on Monday, the AP reported that authorities announced a summer crackdown on crime in certain areas of Detroit, pledging to take felons who are caught with guns to federal court where prison sentences typically are longer than in state court.
U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said her prosecutors will focus on the city’s 8th and 9th precincts and swiftly make decisions on charges, working closely with Detroit police and federal agents.
“As temperatures rise, so does violence. … Along with a few violent actors there are also very small areas that contribute to most of the violence in our communities,” Ison said, according to the AP report.
The AP reported that she said mass shootings in the U.S., which have dominated recent headlines, are “horrible” but “there is more urban violence still than mass shootings.”
A felon caught with a gun can face up to 10 years in federal prison. Crimes committed with guns can carry even more severe sentences.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan welcomed the help in the city of 639,000 people, as was reported by the AP. He said the number of gunshot victims in Detroit was down 25% compared to a year ago “but it doesn’t feel like a celebration.”
More gunfire erupted in the streets of Philadelphia this past weekend and the AP reported on Tuesday that authorities say a second person is in custody in connection with the shooting that killed three people and wounded 11 in the “City of Brotherly Love.” The attack took place in a popular Philadelphia entertainment district — but no charges have yet been filed in any of the shooting deaths.
City police announced Monday night that the person was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals, who said Tuesday that 34-year-old Rashaan Vereen was arrested without incident in south Philadelphia. He is charged with attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangering, conspiracy and weapons crimes as well as evidence-tampering and obstruction of justice, federal marshals said, as was reported by the AP.
Police officers patrolling the South Street area in central Philadelphia at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday raced to the scene after hearing multiple shots and found several people with gunshot wounds lying on the sidewalk and in the street. Seeing a man on a corner firing a handgun at people about half a block away, one officer opened fire, and that man dropped his handgun onto the sidewalk and fled, authorities said.
The AP reported that although gun violence is among the leading causes of death in the U.S., Congress has allocated little funding over the years to study it. Research about gun violence was effectively halted in 1996 by an amendment to a federal spending bill. That suspension was reversed in 2018 after the Parkland shooting. The AP reported that Congress allocated $25 million to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health to fund gun violence research.
That 20-year gap in federal funding means that gun violence has received less study than have other major deadly public health issues like car crashes, smoking or HIV, according to Andrew Morral, director of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research.
“We don’t have great data,” said Morral, a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation, as was reported by the AP. “We don’t have a big cadre of researchers working on this.”
Last year, Arnold Ventures and The Joyce Foundation commissioned an analysis to find out how much it would cost the government to fund research and collect data about gun violence. Their conclusion: $600 million over five years.
“We’re not talking about $10, and we’re not talking about $25 billion; this is a solvable issue,” said Asheley Van Ness, a director at Arnold Ventures who oversees gun violence research, according to the AP report. Other donors besides the federal government could help contribute.
“Philanthropy plays a unique role in American public policy as catalysts for change, often laying a path forward that government can follow,” Van Ness said.
The AP reported that in response to a significant increase in gun homicides in 2020, the Biden administration allowed municipalities to direct funds from the American Rescue Plan last June toward gun violence reduction strategies, including community violence intervention programs.
The administration also partnered with about a dozen foundations to build the capacity of community violence intervention programs in 15 cities, including Los Angeles, Washington and St. Louis. The AP reported that the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, which supports shooting victims while they’re recovering and encourages them and their relatives not to retaliate, is providing training and technical help to the initiative.
A decade ago, the Joyce Foundation launched a funding collaborative, the Fund for a Safer Future, which pools resources for reducing gun violence, according to the AP report. Scott Moyer, president of the Jacob & Valeria Langeloth Foundation and member of the fund’s executive committee, says it allows foundations or large donors who are interested but don’t have close connections or a deep understanding of gun violence to make an impact.
The AP reported that the fund also donates to organizations that help defend gun regulations and that advocate for policies — something Moyer said is permissible despite restrictions that bar nonprofits from participating in political lobbying.
The fund also allows donors who wish to be anonymous the chance to participate. Still, he suggested, it’s better to speak out against gun violence and visibly support funding solutions.
“Some people see that gun violence issues are too political,” Moyer said. “And I would push back on that and just say, ‘People are dying.”
The AP also reported on Tuesday that the son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed in the Buffalo supermarket shooting challenged Congress to act against the “cancer of white supremacy” and the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.
Garnell Whitfield Jr’s emotional testimony came as lawmakers are working furiously to strike a bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings, as was reported by the AP.
“What are you doing? You were elected to protect us,” Whitfield Jr. told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” he asked. “If there is nothing then, respectfully, senators … you should yield your positions of authority and influence to others that are willing to lead on this issue.”
(Sources: AP) – (Additional reporting by: Fern Sidman)
