National Gun Violence Prevention Organizations Call for Effective Federal Assault...

National Gun Violence Prevention Organizations Call for Effective Federal
Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Alabama Rampage Shooting Leaving 11 Dead,
Including Shooter

WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following yesterday's assault
weapon rampage shooting in Alabama leaving 11 dead including the shooter,
America's leading national gun violence prevention organizations -- Brady
Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Freedom
States Alliance, Legal Community Against Violence, and Violence Policy Center
-- issued the following joint statement:

"Our sympathies go to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.

"The guns used in yesterday's rampage shooting across Alabama -- a Bushmaster
AR-15-style assault rifle and an SKS assault rifle -- are military-bred
firearms developed for the specific purpose of killing human beings quickly
and efficiently. Yesterday's shooting is only the latest addition to a string
of preventable tragedies committed with these military-style weapons. America
needs an effective federal assault weapons ban to stop the mass production and
marketing by the gun industry of these anti-personnel weapons. Today we call
on the U.S. Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban modeled on
California's effective law that would ban these weapons once and for all.

"The answer to gun violence is not more guns. Alabama has one of the highest
gun ownership rates in the nation -- more than 57 percent of the state's
households have guns -- and some of the weakest gun laws in the country. At
the same time, its overall gun death rate for 2005 (16.18 per 100,000) ranks
it fifth in the nation. The sad truth is that America will continue to
experience these horrific events until Congress listens to the friends and
families of the 30,000 Americans who die from guns each year instead of the
National Rifle Association."

SOURCE Violence Policy Center

Peter Hamm of Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, +1-202-898-0792,
phamm@bradymail.org; Ladd Everitt of Coalition to Stop Gun Violence,
+1-202-408-0061 x1003, leveritt@csgv.org; Scott Vogel of Freedom States
Alliance, +1-312-243-8980, scott@freedomstatesalliance.org; Julie Leftwich of
Legal Community Against Violence, +1-415-433-2062, jleftwich@lcav.org; or
Mandy Wimmer of Violence Policy Center, +1-202-822-8200 x101, mwimmer@vpc.org