Gun Control Groups Prepare for 'National Day of Protest'

Since 08-25-07

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
August 23, 2007

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200708/NAT20070823b.html

(CNSNews.com) - Gun control activists have declared Tuesday, Aug. 28, a "national day of protest to focus attention on the scourge of illegal gun trafficking."

The Brady Campaign, along with its Million Mom March chapters, said it will join the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH Coalition at demonstrations in cities across America.

Jackson's group chose Aug. 28 because it marks the 44th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march on Washington.

As Cybercast News Service reported earlier, Jackson has attended a series of recent protests at a suburban Chicago gun store, which he blames for gun crimes in Chicago.

Anti-gun activists have confirmed more than twenty events so far, including a rally at a park in Newark, N.J., near the schoolyard where four college students were lined up and shot in the back of the head. Three of them died. Six people, two of them in this country illegally, have been arrested in connection with the case.

Activists also plan to protest at a Maryland gun store "that is responsible for the most crime guns found in Washington, D.C."

Other Aug. 28 protests and vigils are planned in the cities of Phoenix, Birmingham, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Diego, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, and Raleigh-Durham, to name some of them.

"The August 28 rallies will focus the public and push leaders at all levels of government to take action against the illegal gun market and to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals," the Brady Campaign said on its Web site.

In addition, gun control advocates said they are launching a statewide letter-writing in California to build support for a crime-fighting "microstamping" bill being considered once again by the State Legislature. (See Earlier Story)

"We can't achieve Dr. King's 'dream' of what America can be when we lose 32 people every day to gun murders," said Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke. "Dr. King's focus on civil rights and non-violence should lead us now to ask each other and our leaders, 'What are you going to do about gun violence?'"

The Brady Campaign argues that if tougher laws make it harder for criminals to get guns, there will be fewer "gun violence victims."

But Second Amendment groups say criminals who want guns will always get them. They insist that tougher laws will affect only law-abiding Americans who have the right to defend themselves.

See Earlier Stories:
Gun Advocate Wants Priest's 'Snuff' Comments Investigated (May 31, 2007)

'Snuff' the Gun Shop Owner, Priest Says (May 29, 2007)