National, State, and Local Gun Violence Prevention Groups Issue Joint Statement on Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the second gun massacre in a little over two weeks, this time at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin leaving six victims dead and others critically wounded, national, state, and local gun violence prevention organizations (see list at bottom) issued the following joint statement:

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

"Once again, a place where communities gather is the site of carnage because of our nation's unwillingness to face the issue of gun violence.  While our nation reels from yet another mass shooting in less than three weeks, our elected officials offer little beyond sympathy and words of reassurance.  At the same time, the gun industry continues to churn out increasingly lethal weapons with no concern for the role they play in such violence.  The victims and survivors of gun violence--from Aurora to Oak Creek to the next inevitable community--deserve better and demand more.  The lives of the 30,000 Americans who die each year from firearms, their friends and families, and the communities decimated by gun violence must take precedence over the profit-driven goals of the gun industry.  Each of our organizations calls on our elected leaders to take action to stop the next mass shooting.  Congress must listen to those affected by gun death and injury, not those--like the National Rifle Association and the gun industry--who not only make such violence possible, but profit from it." 

National Organizations

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its national network of chapters
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Protest Easy Guns
States United to Prevent Gun Violence
Violence Policy Center

State and Local Organizations

Arizonans for Gun Safety
Women Against Gun Violence (California)
Ceasefire Maryland
Ceasefire New Jersey (a project of the Coalition for Peace Action)
Ceasefire Oregon
CeaseFirePA
Colorado Ceasefire
Connecticut Against Gun Violence Education Fund
Georgians for Gun Safety
GunFreeKids.org
Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah
Hawaii Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence
Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence
Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence
Stop Handgun Violence (Massachusetts)
Northland Brady Chapter (Minnesota)
Million Mom March, Richmond, VA chapter
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence
Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence
Lance Orchid, National Organizing Director, Gun Violence Prevention
Protect Minnesota
Virginia Center for Public Safety
Washington CeaseFire
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Educational Fund

SOURCE States United to Prevent Gun Violence