November 8 was a banner day for the California Chapters of the Brady Campaign.  Chapter leaders met at a statewide conference at which we celebrated the passage of AB 962, regulating the sale of ammunition in California.
 
We also attended a Los Angeles benefit at which three eminent individuals and one law enforcement group received awards for their work in preventing gun violence.

L.A. Police Chief designate Charlie Beck presented the James S. Brady Law Enforcement Award to the Police Department's Gun Unit.  The Gun Unit's achievements are outstanding.  Through careful monitoring, it has kept the number of legal firearms dealers in L.A. at 17 for a population of 4,000,000 and has restricted the number of CCW permits to 23!

The next awardee was Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player and now an NFL analyst.  He spoke eloquently about growing up in an environment in which he was surrounded by guns, becoming a gunowner himself, and ultimately giving up his gun because he realized that carrying a gun made him more vulnerable to gun violence than being unarmed.  He now urges others to follow his path.

Lastly, our own Brady Chapter Leader for L.A. Suzanne Verge and her husband Jeffrey Peak were honored with the Sarah Brady Visionary Award.  Suzanne has led her chapter for ten years and Jeff has assisted her as Secretary.  Suzanne's brother was murdered in 1978.  Her is her eloquent speech from the benefit.

December 10, 1978 -On a Sunday morning two weeks before Christmas,  memories of celebrating Thanksgiving and my mother's birthday were still fresh in our minds.
my Dad was at 8 o’clock mass with my sister Annette and brothers Mark and Patrick, I was 15 and of course sleeping instead of attending church, my brother Arthur had just graduated from college so he was following his dream, backpacking through New Zealand and Australia, and my brother, Peter, had gone out the night before and was staying with friends.

There was a knock on the door—and, just like that  - our world—as we knew it-- ended .
The Santa Monica Police had come to tell my mother those unthinkable and Incomprehensible words...my brother, Peter, had been murdered a mile from our home at the age of 18.
On that day, two families lives were changed forever. The man who killed my brother was a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School and his family was devastated as well.  I STRONGLY believe if there wasn’t a gun in that condo, at best there would have been a fist fight and my brother would have won it hands down...

For 20 years I did not know what to do with my grief and felt powerless over the situation. It took one person, Donna Dees Thomases to change my life.

Donna was watching the news in August 1999 when she saw the North Valley Jewish Community shooting in the San Fernando Valley.  She thought to herself, my kids go to a Jewish Day Care center, this could have been MY family.  She was outraged and called down to Washington DC and pulled a permit for a march for 10,000 people for Mothers Day 2000.  I had to go to the march in Washington, DC, I had to be the voice for my brother who was no longer with us.  I distinctly remember coming up the escalator and coming out of the Metro carrying my brother’s photo and seeing a sea of people...there were 750,000 people there. There marches all across country that day.  I remember seeing people carrying pictures, wearing t-shirts with their loved ones’ photo or carrying signs with photographs of loved ones lost to guns...I can still see the photo of the handsome young man in his tuxedo in his coffin.  There were too many of us...what was supposed to be a one day march turned into a grassroots movement.  I came home and started a chapter here in Los Angeles.

Now I am not asking you to organize a march or start a chapter but more importantly...please talk to one person about what you felt or heard tonight.  I believe one person can make a difference.  I know my brother Peter made a huge difference to our family. Donna Dees Thomases made a difference to me - she gave me my voice.  Please talk to them about the risks of owning a gun.  A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used against you than for self-protection.  That gun is more likely to be used against someone you know or love such as in my brother’s death or in a suicide or in a unintentional shooting.

The holidays are upon us and we know depression increases with the season.  Please talk to people...young and old about the risks of having a gun in the home. This Dec. 4th will mark the one year anniversary of our dear friends’ son Cameron's suicide.  Cameron was a beautiful 17 year old.  Our friends do not own or keep a gun in their home, but Cameron procured one through someone else's careless ownership. We may hear about the statistics tonight...about the risks and the number of deaths but I will tell you... my brother Peter is not statistic, Cameron is not a statistic, Matthew Blek is not a statistic, Kenzo Dix is not a statistic, Laura Wilcox is not a statistic and I could go on...

These are people who are missed every day. We can do better, we will do better... so please, tomorrow - tell people about what you have heard and together we can make difference.
 

This is a blog about a redesigned web site -- www.bradycampaign.org!  The Brady Campaign's new web site is strikingly attractive and packed with easy-to-find information.  And, in case, you have need a reminder as to why we work for sensible gun laws, check out the counter at the top of the home page.  When I looked this morning, the number of people shot this year in the US was 74,539 and the number shot today was 120.  The numbers have gone way up since I last checked.

California has many web pages at www.bradycampaign.org that tell our State story.  Just go to Find Your Chapter on the Home Page and click on California.  

Legislative Affairs -- tells you about all our current efforts at the state and federal levels

CA Gun Laws -- describes our impressive efforts so far, giving us Brady's highest state ranking, and also covers what else we need to do!

Chapter Activities -- spreads the word about activities happening in our 22 chapters.  Share your news by writing 1ofamillion@comcast.net

Tell Your Story -- features moving accounts from victims and survivors in preparation for our Mother's Day memorial in 2010

Federal Gun Laws -- provides an update on federal activities

CA Chapter Blog -- takes you right here to our California Brady Blog

Just in case you can't find what you're looking for, the new Brady Campaign web site has a search engine.

And when you find information on the web site that you want to share, just click on Share This.

I'm hardly a geek -- most new technology scares me!  But the new Brady web site works and it's easy.  Try it -- you'll see.

Heidi Yewman, State President of Million Mom March in the state of Washington, has recently published an outstanding book, Beyond the Bullet, on the victims of gun violence.  This book is a must-read.  It tells the stories of 18 victims and survivors in their own voices.  It gets us past the horrifying statistics on gun injury and death in America and lets us share in the human pain of gun violence.
I was fortunate to be able to interview Heidi about her book.  Here is what I learned from her.
Q. How and why did you personally get into the gun control movement?
A.  I graduated from Columbine High School 13 years before the 1999 massacre. Dave Sanders, the sole teacher that died in the massacre was my basketball coach and typing teacher at Columbine. As I sat at his funeral I decided I needed to do something, be a part of the solution. I vowed to myself that I would get involved. A year later I was walking among thousands at the Million Mom March in Washington DC. I have been a part of the movement ever since.
Q. What made you decide to do your book?
A.  It started at the march. I was overwhelmed by all the people wearing t-shirts and holding signs that had a picture of their loved one along with the birth and death date. It was like they were screaming, "This person mattered and was loved!" I wanted to know the the story behind the poster and shirt. I wanted to know how you get up the next day, and the next day and the next day. I wanted to know the story behind the death and how it impacted them emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Q. What did you learn from writing your book?
A.  I learned that people grieve in different ways and in different time frames. I learned that gun violence is unnecessary and treating these deaths as just part of living in America is insulting to all involved. I was surprised by the lack of empathy shown by those who only look at statistics to justify pushing week gun laws. I have heard NRA members say that it doesn't matter when a gang member dies or that suicide statistics should not be included in gun violence statistics because the person didn't want to live anyway.
Q. What are the main messages of your book?
A.  The message of the book is that the lives of those killed by gun violence do matter. I want the reader to see that the mother of the gang member killed morns just as much as the mother of the honor roll student that was unintentionally killed. Suicide by gun is preventable and those whose lives were lost can not be discounted because "they didn't want to live anyway." My hope is that the reader will more deeply understand the real loss from gun violence as told by those who experience that loss everyday.
Q. What are the greatest needs of victims and survivors?
A.  Because grief is experienced in different ways there is no one need. What I heard over and over, though is that victims and survivors want to be heard. They want the life of their loved one to matter and they don't want their grief and loss to be minimized by cruel and unnecessary comments. One woman I interviewed whose son died from suicide said that people assumed her son was on drugs because they had sons the same age and didn't want to think that what happed to her could happen to them. She said it was hurtful and put her have to defend her son instead of just morn his death.
    Thank you, Heidi, for adding so much to our efforts to reduce gun violence both through this book and all the other work you do.

I urge you to read the review below of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books, 2009).  Lethal Logic was written by Dennis A. Henigan, Vice President for Law and Policy at the Brady Campaign.  The book contains an extraordinary presentation of how the gun lobby misrepresents gun violence in America and is a worthy addition to your reading/research collection.

The review was written by California's Griffin Dix who taught Anthropology at Santa Clara University. In 1994 his fifteen-year-old son, Kenzo, was shot and killed in Berkeley. He recently served as the Chapter-elected national Chairman of the Million Mom March’s National State Presidents Council.
________________
Four out of five Americans support specific measures to regulate firearms, such as requiring background checks at gun shows. In the 2006 and 2008 elections, candidates who explicitly backed such regulations defeated NRA-endorsed or “A-rated” candidates overwhelmingly. But now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as the Democratic leaders of the Senate and the White House are universally afraid to even raise the subject. Why is that?

Part of the answer is that the gun lobby’s emotionally powerful, fear-inducing arguments work. In his new book, Dennis Henigan takes on the gun lobby’s policy-paralyzing slogans and answers them with sound logic and research.  A gun lobby golden oldie is: Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People, “one of the greatest advocacy slogans ever conceived,” says Henigan. But, he points out, cars by themselves don’t kill people either, yet no one argues against licensing drivers and mandating safety features like seat belts and airbags.

Unlike cars, guns are sold as weapons and attract many buyers who want to use them to commit crimes. These crimes are more lethal if a gun is used, and less lethal if a knife or fists are used. Citing studies by Frank Zimring of UC Berkeley, Henigan shows that Americans are not more violent than people in other countries but our violence is more lethal because our crimes—such as robbery and assault—more often involve guns. This is another way that, contrary to the slogan, guns do kill people.

However, Henigan says, most people who buy guns, even handguns, do not buy them for crime; they buy them for self-defense and bring them into their homes. Guns kill people there too; the presence of a gun in the home is associated with an almost three fold increase in homicide rates there and an almost five fold increase in suicide.

Partly because the slogans are so effective, we don’t do a good job of thinking about gun policy in this country, says Henigan. In answer to the gun lobby’s arguments, he offers a wealth of logical, research-based counter-arguments.  But are logic and facts enough?

The fearful emotions aroused by the gun industry slogans can easily override logical arguments, even those in favor of laws proven successful at helping prevent criminals—not law-abiding citizens—from obtaining guns. The success of the gun lobby demonstrates political psychologist Drew Westen’s dictum that, “In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins.” (The Political Brain, p. 35) In fact, the most compelling parts of Lethal Logic are the case studies showing the lethal effects of our loophole-ridden laws on ordinary, unsuspecting Americans.

These are the words of Loren Lieb, the mother of one of the children shot ten years ago at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granda Hill, California.  Loren is a Vice President of the California Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

August 10, 1999. The day started like any other. Everyone in my house was still asleep when I left for work at 6:30 a.m. I always went to work early so I could come home in the early afternoon to pick up my kids, 6-year-old Josh and 8-year-old Seth, from Camp Valley Chai at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, a few miles from our house. Everyone was asleep, so I left without saying goodbye, or I love you.  
The day started like any other, but ended like a nightmare. Later that morning, my husband called to tell me, in a strained voice, that there was a “man with a gun” at the camp. I couldn’t make any sense of the statement. Why would there be a man with a gun at a summer day camp? Had he shot anyone? Why wasn’t he captured?
I left my office in downtown Los Angeles and drove 40 minutes to the camp, all the while listening to radio reports of the shooting, which said that 6- and 8-year-old-boys had been shot. The streets near the JCC were closed for several blocks. The five lanes of Rinaldi Street were filled with police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, and news vans, and hundreds and hundreds of frantic parents. Immediately, a complete stranger told me she thought that one of the victims was named Josh. The next thing I heard was a police officer calling through a bullhorn for the parents of Josh Stepakoff. I ran under the yellow tape and he grabbed me firmly by the shoulders, looked my straight in the eye and kept repeating, “He’s going to be okay.” Of course was grateful to know that he would be OK, but how could something like that happen to a 6-year-old child in a supposedly civilized country?
Josh was shot twice: once in the leg, the bullet going straight through the bone, and once in the hip with the bullet stopping under the skin near his spine. It was many hours before we learned the whereabouts of Seth.
To commemorate the anniversary of the shooting, Josh Stepakoff, a survivor and now 16, is organizing with another survivor a Victory Over Violence 10K Run on October 4, 2009.  The run is being organized to raise awareness about gun violence in our community and to raise money for survivors of gun violence.

August 10 marks the 10th anniversary of the the shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community. At about 10:30 a.m., a neo-Nazi with a semi-automatic weapon and hundreds of rounds of ammunition entered the front door of the Center. He found himself face-to-face with a receptionist, and young campers and their counselors who were returning to the building after playing a game.

He began firing his weapon,  sweeping it from side to side, unloading about 70 rounds in a matter of seconds. He wounded 5 people: the receptionist, a 16-year-old counselor, and three young campers who were 5 and 6 years old, and terrorized hundreds more. After fleeing the Center, the shooter car-jacked a car and drove a short distance to Chatsworth where he brutally murdered postal worker Joseph Ileto as he delivered mail. He later fled to Las Vegas where he turned himself in.

The Victory Over Violence Run is being held on October 4, 2009, on the campus of California State University, Northridge (CSUN). The San Fernando Valley Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Women Against Gun Violence (WAGV) are collaborating on the event, with CSUN Hillel as the campus sponsor.

Spread the word, sign up for the run, and be part of the solution for a Victory Over Violence!

On June 17, 2009, California's Brady Campaign Chapters went to Sacramento to advocate with our state legislators (serving from Eureka to San Diego and in between) for our 2009 priority legislation.   We had representatives from 16 of our 22 CA Brady chapters -- a great turnout -- including a combination of long-time leaders and new Brady members.

Before starting out on our legislative appointments, we had an excellent briefing by our Legislative Co-Chairs, Amanda and Nick Wilcox.  Next we met with Assembly Member Kevin de Leon, whose bill, AB 962, is our top priority bill for 2009.  AB 962 proposes to regulate the sale of ammunition in California in order to deter prohibited persons (ex-felons, mentally ill, and domestic violence abusers) from purchasing ammunition in person or online.

If AB 962 becomes law, ammunition sellers will be required to keep records of ammunition sales for 5 years that can be reviewed by law enforcement.  As Chief James from the California Police Chiefs has noted, "It's a new tool for crime detection and any addditional tool is good."  In the city of Sacramento where ammunition sales are already tracked, the police have discovered that 3 percent of ammunition is purchased by prohibited persons and have recovered numerous illegally owned firearms and supplies of ammunition.

Opposition from the gun lobby to AB 962 has been fierce.  Opponenents have put out utterly false information about the bill and Assembly de Leon has been subjected to a hate mail campaign.  The gun lobby apparently fears any regulation of ammunition sales, even though we have similar regulations in California for allergy medicine!!

California Brady members also spoke with their legislators about SB 449 by Senator Alex Padilla which requires that pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers report firearms acquisitions directly to the Department of Justice electronically is order to improve the accuracy and reliability of the Department's Automated Firearms System.

AB 962 and SB 449 have passed their respective legislative houses and will now be heard in the other house.  It is hoped that both bills -- which do not require any support from the General Fund -- will be signed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Our day in Sacramento was a fine opportunity to meet our legislators and their staffs and to discuss ways that California can improve its already strong collection of sensible gun laws.  We thank all the California Brady members who attended and hope to bring even more of our supporters to Sacramento in the future.

April, a month of tragic gun violence anniversaries for Columbine and Virginia Tech was, at the same time, a month of forward movement for California's Brady Campaign.

On April 20, the Columbine anniversary, California Brady leaders met in Sacramento to support new legislation being heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.  At a press conference with Assembly Members Kevin De Leon and Paul Krekorian, Brady leaders expressed support for AB 962 (De Leon) regulating ammunition sales and AB 814 (Krekorian) establishing procedures to retrieve guns from owners who have become prohibited persons under the law.  The press conference also observed a moment of silence for Columbine and all other gun victims.

On April 21, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Jack Reed (RI) introduced S. 843, the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2009 to close the gun show loophole.  Currently, gun purchasers in many states can buy guns at gun shows, flea markets and swap meets with Brady criminal background checks.  This practice must be ended.  The legislation will go a long way to stemming the flow of illegal guns into California from states with weaker gun laws.

Also on April 20, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that counties can ban gun shows on public property without violating the Second Amendment.  This decision hopefully concluded a case brought by two gun  show promoters to overturn Alameda County's ordinance prohibiting the carrying of guns and ammunition on county property.  The gun promoters had hoped that the Supreme Court's Heller decision would assist in their lawsuit but the Appeals Court ruled that the Second Amendment does not preclude reasonable gun restrictions set down by a government agency.  California Brady members sat in on the hearings for this lawsuit and were gratified by the decision.  The California Brady Campaign is also supporting SB 585 introduced by Senator Mark Leno that would ban the sale of firearms and ammunition at the San Francisco Cow Palace.

On May 19, Los Angeles will hold its runoff election for City Attorney.  The race has been hotly contested between Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich.  The Brady Campaign has endorsed Jack Weiss in recognition of his longstanding leadership on sensible gun laws.  The Brady Campaign has also endorsed gun violence prevention champion and former Assembly Member, Paul Koretz, for LA City Council in the 5th District.

With the terrible massacres occurring across the U.S. in the last few weeks, we all feel the need for a dramatic response.  It's time for Congress to require Brady criminal background checks on all firearm transactions including all gun show sales.  It's time to pass a comprehensive assault weapons ban.

While we, in California, can work on these issues nationally, we can
also work on a different piece of the gun violence epidemic – handgun
ammunition sales in California.  While current law prohibits certain
categories of people -- criminals and the mentally ill -- from purchasing
ammunition, there is no way to enforce this law because there is no
monitoring of ammunition sales.  Moreover, a loophole in current law
allows ammunition sellers to sell to prohibited people without any legal
sanction!  Thus, many ammunition sales are made to people prohibited
by law from possessing ammunition.

AB 962, introduced by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon, would change all
that.  The bill makes it unlawful to sell ammunition to known prohibited
persons.   The bill contains other critical provisions: 

1) handgun ammunition sellers would have to obtain a vendor's license
from the Department of Justice 

2) all employees handling ammunition sales would have to pass a background
check 

3) to prevent shoplifting, all handgun ammunition would have to be safely
stored, such as behind the sales counter 

4) handgun ammunition sales would be required to be in face-to-face
transactions, thereby eliminating internet or mail order sales.

Equally important ammunition sellers would be obliged to keep records
for five years about every handgun
ammunition sale, including name, thumbprint, signature, of the purchaser,
and type and amount of ammunition purchased.  These records would be
required to be made available to law enforcement.

While California has the strongest gun laws in the U.S., there is much
more that we can do to assure we live with sensible and effective gun
laws.  Ammunition sales regulation is sensible and critical for keeping
ammunition out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously
mentally ill.  Just consider how many of the killers in the massacres
in recent weeks fell into the category of criminal or mentally ill. 
AB 962 is a bill that puts no additional expense on the state and it
provides law enforcement with an additional tool for solving and preventing
crime.

Just think about this -- in California, we insist, for the public's
protection, that pharmacies store many strong allergy medicines behind
the sales counter.  Wouldn't we want to do at least the same for handgun
ammunition?

In light of the terrifying series of gun massacres in the US in the last month and this week's massacre in Binghamton, New York, we reprint an article written by Amanda Wilcox.  Amanda and Nick Wilcox are the Legislative Chairs for the California Brady Campaign.  Amanda is also the Interim Chair of the Brady Chapter in Sacramento.

In the article below, Amanda describes the loss in 2001 of Laura Wilcox, Amanda and Nick's daughter, in a shooting by a severely mentally ill person.  The experience of losing a loved one to gun violence cannot be imagined.  In the article below, Amanda describes how tracking ammunition sales can assist in decreasing gun violence.  That subject will be discussed in the subsequent blog.

By Amanda Wilcox:

It is said that a child in the US is far more likely to catch a bullet than to catch the measles. Every year in our country, about 30,000 people die from gun violence and over 70,000 people are injured by gunfire. Drive-by shootings and firearm homicides are becoming common occurrences in the Sacramento area. Have you had enough? Join the Campaign to keep illegal guns off our streets and help curb gun violence.  

My family has been personally touched by gun violence. In 2001, my only daughter, Laura, was murdered while home on winter break from college. Laura was filling in as a receptionist at a Behavioral Health clinic in Nevada County, when, without warning, a patient suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun and shot Laura four times at point blank range. Laura was killed instantly. When the shooting rampage at the clinic and at a nearby restaurant ended, three people lay dead, three were severely injured, a community was shaken, and the world was diminished by the loss of an incredible young woman.

The circumstances surrounding Laura’s death dramatically highlight the tragic intersection of untreated severe mental illness and inappropriate access to firearms. Certainly, improved mental health care and better access to treatment are morally right and necessary for true violence prevention. The enforcement of laws that keep firearms out of inappropriate hands is also essential.     

Laura’s killer had a houseful of illegal weapons. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence believes that dangerous weapons should be kept out of dangerous hands. There are classes of people, who, based on past behaviors, are deemed to be at high risk of committing violent acts with firearms. We have laws that prohibit these persons – such as the dangerously mentally ill, gang members, violent felons, or wife batterers – from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition. We have laws, such as the Brady Background Check, that regulate the transfer of weapons and provide the means for keeping guns out of dangerous hands. The City of Sacramento and the State of California are leaders in adopting such laws, which need to be expanded to other jurisdictions or states.   

Last year, Sacramento City Council Member McCarty introduced a city ordinance that tracks ammunition sales in order to deter and detect ammunition purchases by criminals, gang members, and other unlawful purchasers. The ordinance requires gun dealers to maintain a log of ammunition sales, including identifying information about the purchaser. The Sacramento Police Department cross-checks these logs with the existing state database of prohibited persons and can determine who is illegally buying ammo and may be illegally armed. Furthermore, the Police Department regularly uses the ammunition log information in the investigation of gun crime.   

After eight months of data (Jan. 2008 – Sept. 2008), the results are astounding. The Sacramento Police Department reports that 117 prohibited people purchased ammunition. Of these prohibited people, 80% had felony convictions and 6 were gang members. 67% of the illegal ammunition purchased was primarily ammunition used in handguns. It is important to note that handguns are the weapons of choice for criminals.   

As a result of the information from the ammunition logs, the Sacramento Police Department was able to execute 28 search warrants and recover 56 illegal firearms, 800+ rounds of illegal ammunition, and 3 stolen firearms. Arrests, felony charges and convictions have taken place. The Sacramento Police Department reports that, “The ordinance and the enforcement program which has resulted from it have proven to be effective tools for locating firearms violators.”  

The level of gun crime and gun violence in the Sacramento area has become disturbingly high. Disarming criminals and other prohibited persons is a critical step for improving public safety. The Sacramento City Ammunition Ordinance provides a means for identifying and disarming criminals and other prohibited persons. However, illegal guns and illegal ammo does not stop at city lines. To the extent that Sacramento County and other neighboring jurisdictions adopt similar ordinances, the surrounding communities will become safer. To that end, Council Member McCarty and the Sacramento Valley Brady Campaign Chapter are seeking a countywide ammunition ordinance.

Why would a member of a Mexican drug cartel arm himself in the U.S.?  Quite simply because Mexican gun laws are much tougher than ours.  In Mexico, an individual can purchase a gun only from a licensed business and the purchase must be registered and approved by the Department of National Defense!  In the US, an individual in many states can buy a gun from an unlicensed seller without even a background check.  

But that's not all.  In states like Arizona and Texas where Mexican drug lords do business because of incredibly weak gun laws, traffickers can buy unlimited numbers of guns at one time and can purchase military-style assault weapons.  California is the only border state with Mexico that has laws strong enough to prevent major drug cartel purchases, but California's laws have no effect on criminals operating in neighboring border states.

Ample evidence for criminal export of guns can be found in the Brady Campaign's new report, EXPORTING GUN VIOLENCE (www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/reports/exporting-gun-violence.pdf).  Here's just one example of the cross-border drug trade from the Brady report:

Alan Rodriguez, 35, a struggling carpet-layer from the Dallas area, bought more
than 100 assault rifles, 9-mm handguns and other high-powered weapons
from U.S. gun dealers over several months, according to court records.
Authorities say traffickers gave him stacks of cash to buy the guns, with
marijuana laced in between the bills. He earned about $30 to $40 a gun,
according to court records. One of the pistols he bought in Dallas was used in a
cartel gunfight near Reynosa, Mexico, in which two federal police officers were
shot. In 2006, Rodriguez was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison.

What we need to recognize is that the same US gun laws -- or lack of gun laws -- that wreak havoc in Mexico also wreak havoc in the US.  Again, as one example, the recent murder of four policement in Oakland involved an assault weapon that, while banned for sale in California, was likely transported from a neighboring state that allows the sale of assault weapons.

While we in California work hard to maintain and improve our gun laws, we are constantly reminded, now even by Mexico, that guns laws in other states and nationally are completely inadequate.  Mexico's Attorney General correctly called American gun laws "absurd."  We need national and international solutions to a national problem.
 
 

The California Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence are excited about the Los Angeles City Council and City office elections taking place on March 3, 2009.  The Brady Campaign has endorsed four candidates, all extremely qualified and all strong supporters of our efforts to make our communities safer and decrease gun violence in our neighborhoods and urban areas.            

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has championed sensible gun laws throughout his public service career.  As noted by Kay Holmen, former President of Brady's California Chapters, "Villaraigosa was speaker of the State Assembly before serving on the Los Angeles City Council.  In the Assembly, he was instrumental in the passage of California's Assault Weapons Ban, the strongest of such measures in the U.S.  During his time as Mayor, he has consistently supported the LAPD and state and local bills that promote better safety controls over the sale and distribution of guns and ammunition."             

L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss and Chair of the Public Safety Committee is running for L.A. City Attorney.  President of the Brady Campaign Paul Helmke stated that "Jack Weiss, as a federal prosecutor and as a member of the L.A. City Council, has been a consistent supporter of ensuring that the law enforcement community has the tools it needs to make Los Angeles a safer place."            

The Brady Campaign has made a dual endorsement in the race for the 5th District Los Angeles City Council.  Paul Koretz, former Assembly Member from 2000-2006, was a leader in the California legislature to ban .50 caliber rifles and to require microstamping of new semi-automatic handguns. Community activist Robyn Ritter-Simon was an early organizer and supporter of the Million Mom March.            

The L.A. City Council recently passed new gun and ammunition ordinances tightening restrictions on ammunition vendors.  Council Member Weiss, together with Council Member Janice Hahn, have recently proposed a new law to make it more difficult for individuals convicted of certain misdemeanors -- such as carrying a concealed weapon, possessing an assault weapon or committing burglary and gang crimes -- to own a gun.            

The California Brady Campaign Chapters expect the March 3 election will again bring to office leaders to continue L.A.'s leadership in the field of gun violence prevention.

             
     In recent years, numerous counties in California have passed ordinances that restrict possession and/or sale of firearms on county-owned property.  Alameda County passed such an ordinance in August, 1999. As is the case in other counties, the effect of the ordinance has been to end gun shows on county-owned property.
 
    In September, 1999, Russell Allen Nordyke and Sallie Ann Nordyke, gun show promoters, filed suit against Alameda County, declaring that the ordinance violated their constitutional right to operate gun shows on county-owned property.  Among other things, they declared that their rights were protected by the Second Amendment "right to bear arms."
 
    The Nordykes now argue that the Supreme Court's decision in July, 2008 in the District of Columbia v. Heller case, gives them the right to sell arms on county property.  In the Heller case, the Court declared that the Second Amendment allowed individuals to keep handguns in the home for purposes of self-defense (overturning a District of Columbia ban on handguns in the home).  The court said, however, that other types of laws restricting guns are "presumptively lawful."
 
    The County of Alameda, and the various organizations submitting an amicus curiae brief in the case in support of the County, argue that the (federal) Second Amendment does not apply to states because it has not been incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment.  And, even if it did apply, they argue the Heller case protects individuals' gun rights to protect "hearth and home," not to sell guns commercially, as in the case of gun shows.  The County further claims that it has the right to
protect citizens on county-owned property and has not banned commercial gun shows held on private property.
 
    The Nordyke case is an important one.  Both sides want a clear reading on whether or not the Second Amendment applies to states and localities, and, if so, how the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment rights relate to gun activities outside the home.
 
    The Nordyke case has recently been heard by a three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Whatever the panel's decision, the parties are likely to seek a hearing by the full Ninth Circuit and then, after that, by the Supreme Court.
 
    Advocates for sensible gun laws have a great deal at stake in the ongoing judicial interpretation of the Second Amendment and the Heller decision.  The California Brady Blog will keep you posted on future developments.

Gun violence shatters the lives of our loved ones, their families and friends.  The shooting and death of Matthew Blek at age 21 in New York shattered the lives of his parents, Mary Leigh and Charlie Blek and many, many others.  

Matthew's shooting also resulted in an extraordinary gain for the movement to prevent gun violence because Mary Leigh and Charlie Blek have since given their all to the Million Mom March (Mary Leigh is President Emeritus of MMM) and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.  They have been outstanding and inspiring leaders of the movement and have worked in every conceivable capacity. They still do.

They are willing to share a coda in the story of the loss of their son-- a letter from the police officer, Jerry Castro, who accompanied Matthew in the ambulance that carried him to the hospital where he died.  As Mary Leigh says in her message below, she endured agony imagining Matthew's last moments.  We are grateful for her willingness to recount that agony and share the letter she received from Officer Castro many years later after the shooting.


May the story of the Blek family and of Officer Castro's gesture in writing them be of comfort to other victims and survivors of gun violence.



From Mary Leigh Blek:



I want to share something very special, personal and extraordinary

that came into my inbox today.  I think you will appreciate the

importance of this to me and it will again reaffirm the goodness and

kindness of people.  I was told that Matt was in a great deal of pain

from his injuries and I agonized over the fact that he was blinded in

one eye, his vocal chords useless and he was drowning as his lungs

filled with blood. I have relived that perceived ambulance ride over

and over again in my mind, I felt he must have been terrified and in

such pain....and all alone.

You can imagine my emotions when I received the message below.



From Retired Police Officer Jerry Castro:



Hello Mary Leigh,

   I hope it's okay that I am contacting you.  I honestly had no

idea it would be this easy, but when I started to research the

incident and your name, everything fell into place.  I had no idea

that you and your husband have dedicated your lives to a cause you

believe in. You have made great changes and have most likely saved

many lives.

   I'm looking back now that I am retired, married, and have four

children.  I regret rushing the two or three minutes we had to speak

to one another 13 years ago outside the Queens court room.  I am the

police officer  that was first on the scene when your son Matthew was

shot. Out of all my years working the streets of NYC and all the

victims I have come in contact with, besides Sept. 11th,  your sons'

incident sticks with me the most.  I do wish I would have taken more

time to sit down with you and answer every question you may have had.

I don't know if there are any questions you may have or even if you

would ask any at this point. When I rode in the ambulance with your

son, I knew he wasn't our "typical" victim. I knew he was an innocent

kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe we developed a

bond in the 10-15 min ride as I continued to speak to him and we

looked at each other. He was remarkably calm, and I think he was at

peace with what was happening.  I know its risky contacting you after

so many years and I'm not quit sure if it was the right thing to do. I

want you to know I have prayed for your family, and something good

came out of that awful night.  Matthew would be proud of you.

  God Bless,

Jerry Castro