Pennsylvanians To Gather For "We Stand With Newtown" Rally, Calling On Representatives To Co-Sponsor Life-Saving Background Check Legislation

ALLENTOWN, Pa., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayors, community leaders and concerned citizens will join together in a day of remembrance and a call to action in Allentown, Mt. Lebanon, West Chester and Wormleysburg Friday to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT that took the lives of 26 victims. Attendees will ask their representatives in Congress to co-sponsor bipartisan, life-saving background check legislation introduced by Reps. Mike Thompson and Pete King.

The events coincide with Mayors Against Illegal Guns' official launch of its "No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence" tour from Newtown. The tour will go to 25 states over a period of 100 days. At each stop on the tour, gun violence survivors, their families and concerned community members will rally in support of gun violence prevention efforts and to urge their representatives in Washington to support background checks that will reduce gun violence.

Every day, 33 Americans are murdered with guns in the United States. This past April, a minority of U.S. senators voted to block bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey that would have helped keep guns out of the hands of criminals by requiring background checks for commercial gun sales. Recent independent polls have found that 88 percent of Pennsylvania residents support background checks for all gun sales.

Event details are below:

Allentown
What: We Stand With Newtown Rally; Calling on Representative Charlie Dent to Support the King-Thompson Compromise Bill
Who:  Ed Pawlowski, Mayor of Allentown, Roy Del Rosario, Mayor of Hamuburg, Jose Rosado, Mayor of Fountain Hill, Julio Guridy Allentown City Council President, CeCe Gerlach, Allentown District School Board Director, and Basilio Bonilla, Jr., Board of Directors, Bethlehem Area School District, Organizing For Action, and  Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Where:  Allentown City Hall Steps, 435 Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101
When: Friday, June 14, 4:00 PM

Mt. Lebanon
What:  We Stand With Newtown Rally; Calling on Representative Tim Murphy to Support the King-Thompson Compromise Bill
Who:  Shawntika Rice, Co-Chair of Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network Anti Violence Task Force, Rob Conroy, Western PA Coordinator of CeaseFirePA, and Rhonda Paglia, Retired School Teacher and Author of "The Little Lambs and their Special Mission"- A book dedicated to the Children of Newtown, CT,  CeaseFirePA, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Where: Unitarian Church of the South Hills, 1240 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon, PA 15236
When: Friday, June 14, 5:00 PM

West Chester
What:  We Stand With Newtown Rally; Calling on Representative Jim Gerlach to Support the King-Thompson Compromise Bill
Who: Tom Buglio, Director for West Chester Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, Cassandra Jones, Vice President of West Chester Borough Council, and Shira Goodman, Executive Director for CeaseFirePA, Organizing For Action, West Chester Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Where: Chester County Courthouse Steps, 2 North High Street, West Chester, PA 19380
When: Friday, June 14, 12:00 PM

Wormleysburg
What: We Stand With Newtown Rally; Calling on Representative Scott Perry to Support the King-Thompson Compromise Bill
Who: Christine Licata, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Where: Office of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, 730 North Front Street, Wormleysburg, PA 17043
When: Friday, June 14, 2:00 PM

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 950 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country.  The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people to get guns.  Learn more at www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org

MEDIA CONTACT
Kate Downen: kdownen@maig.org or 406-224-5056
Jack Warner: jwarner@maig.org or 914-575-1090

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns