To Violence Policy Center Action Network Members:
TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on an amendment sponsored by South Dakota Senator John Thune to the defense reathorization bill (S. 1390) that would force our communities to allow dangerous individuals from other states to carry loaded, hidden handguns in public.
ACTION STEP
Call your two U.S. Senators today! Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators' offices.
Tell your U.S. Senators to vote NO on the Thune gun amendment.
A new VPC study (http://www.vpc.org/studies/ccw2009.pdf) released yesterday and cited in a New York Times editorial (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/opinion/21tue2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion) today shows that in a recent two-year period in only 31 incidents, concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven law enforcement officers and 44 private citizens. These incidents include five mass shootings resulting in the deaths of 23 victims. Because of the secretive nature of state concealed carry systems, the VPC was forced to rely on news clippings for its research. The actual number of unjustified killings by concealed handgun permit holders is most likely far, far higher.
States currently have the authority to make their own rules about who can carry a concealed weapon (CCW). But the gun lobby's friends in Congress want to dramatically undermine each state's authority to determine who can possess handguns by allowing individuals with concealed carry permits issued by virtually any other state to cross state lines with their deadly weapons and carry loaded guns in public--a policy that will also increase gun trafficking, as well as gun deaths and injuries. This proposal is particularly dangerous for states like California that have tough permitting standards.
o The Thune amendment would dramatically increase the number of individuals carrying concealed handguns in public in your state.
o The Thune amendment would require states to recognize concealed carry permits that are issued by other states. The practical effect of this change would be to establish the lowest common denominator as the general rule for carrying a concealed handgun.
Call your senators NOW and tell them to vote NO on the Thune amendment.
Thank you, as always, for your time and energy to help stop gun violence.
Sincerely,
Josh Sugarmann
Executive Director
I think Uncle has dismantled the "study" that Sugarmann and the time cite as the usual junk we can expect from these people...er this person (is there anyone else at the VPC except Sugarmann?).
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