| |
| |
|  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Americans For Gun Safety Launches Million-Dollar Campaign Backing Senators McCain and Lieberman's Bill to Close Gun Show Loophole and Crack Down on Gun Crime Top Police Group Endorses; Poll Shows Overwhelming Support For Bill
Washington—Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) today announced it will spend at least one million dollars on an advertising and organizing campaign to support new bi-partisan legislation sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) that requires criminal background checks at gun shows and beefs up both the state and federal crackdown on violent criminals. The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) endorsed the bill today. AGS also released a poll showing that 86% of Americans support requiring background checks at gun shows, and that the support is both broad and deep: the new poll found that even 78% of gun owners support gun show background checks. The poll of 800 people from around the country was conducted by national pollsters John Zogby and Mark Mellman and had a margin of error of "Senators McCain and Lieberman and their co-sponsors have reached across the aisle to forge a bi-partisan bill that requires background checks at gun shows and helps law enforcement crack down hard on gun crime, and we hope and expect that the President will support it," said AGS President Jonathan Cowan. "Background checks do absolutely nothing to interfere with the smooth operation of gun shows, or to restrict the legitimate right of law-abiding Americans to buy and own guns. This bill will help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and it will provide a range of new tools to law enforcement to fight gun crime." AGS is planning a wide-ranging media and organizing campaign in support of the McCain-Lieberman bill, Cowan said. The group will run television and radio ads backing the bill, and it will conduct extensive outreach to the public to join in the effort to close the gun show loophole and attack gun crime. AGS already has produced its television ad, which states:
Cowan's assessment reflects the findings of the bipartisan poll commissioned by AGS that revealed strong and robust support for closing the gun show loophole that cuts across lines of party, region, gender, geography and other factors. The poll asked the following question:
The responses were as follows:
Large majorities of all sub-groupings favor
AGS is not new to the fight to close the gun show loophole. The group invested nearly $3 million last fall in its successful campaigns on behalf of gun show loophole ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon. Voters in those states, including a majority of gun owners, approved the initiatives by overwhelming margins—71% in Colorado and 63% in Oregon. The AGS campaigns in those states featured Senator McCain and law enforcement officials. The McCain/Lieberman bill today received the endorsement of the NAPO, a coalition of police unions representing groups with 230,000 law enforcement officers. NAPO has not actively endorsed any gun legislation since 1994. NAPO Executive Director Robert Scully said in an endorsement letter that the group was backing the bill to help end a system that "allows for violent criminals to obtain weapons that jeopardize both the safety of the public and of law enforcement." The bill also has garnered a substantial bi-partisan list of co-sponsors. In the Senate, the co-sponsors include DeWine (R-OH) and Schumer Highlights of the legislation sponsored by McCain and Lieberman include:
Thirty-two states have failed to close the gun show loophole. They are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Criminal background checks for gun purchasers are virtually instant: 72% are completed within several minutes, 95% within two hours, and only one in 30 lasts more than a day. The length of background checks is currently limited to three business days. About Americans for Gun SafetyAmericans for Gun Safety, a project of the Tsunami Fund, is a 501(c)(4) non-partisan, not for profit advocacy organization that promotes responsible gun ownership and supports the rights of citizens to own guns for sport, protection, and collection. AGS also supports stronger new laws and tougher enforcement of current laws to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children. The advertisement and further information about the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill are available on the AGS website: www.americansforgunsafety.com.
| |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
