Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock And Coalition Of Faith And Community Members To Call On Congress To End Gun Violence On The Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Releases New Ad and Research on How Weak Gun Laws Turn Domestic Abuse into Murders; www.DemandAction.org

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NEW YORK, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Kimberly Brusk, a domestic violence and gun violence survivor and Halsey Knapp, a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church and lawful gun owner, will call on Congress to support comprehensive and enforceable universal background checks. 

In conjunction with this event, Mayors Against Illegal Guns released on Wednesday new research findings highlighting the disturbing link between guns and violence against women and an ad featuring Elvin Daniel, a gun owner and NRA member whose sister Zina Daniel was murdered in the Brookfield, Wis., spa shooting in October 2012.  Several days after she obtained a restraining order against her violent estranged husband – which made him a prohibited purchaser – he bought a semiautomatic handgun from a private online seller without a background check, which he used the next day to murder her and two other people.  If Zina and her husband lived in nearby Michigan, where a background check is required for every handgun sale, she and the other victims might still be alive today.  In fact, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has found that in states that require a background check for every handgun sale, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners.

The event in Atlanta is part of a series of events hosted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, in conjunction with Organization For Action and other groups supporting background checks, to continue the push for commonsense gun laws like comprehensive and enforceable background checks while members of Congress are back in their home states on recess. The bipartisan coalition has been hosting events across the country featuring mayors, faith leaders, moms, law enforcement officials, gun violence survivors and family members of victims who will speak about the need for comprehensive gun laws and the disturbing link between domestic violence and guns. 

WHAT: Coalition of faith leaders, community members and gun safety advocates will call on Congress to support comprehensive and enforceable background checks.

WHO:  Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock
Kimberly Brusk, a domestic violence and gun violence survivor
Halsey Knapp, a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church and lawful gun owner

WHEN:  Thursday, April 4 at 2:30 PM

WHERE: Ebenezer Baptist Church
Horizon Sanctuary
400 Auburn Ave, NE
Atlanta, GA 30312

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 900 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

CONTACTS
Christina Freundlich: [email protected] or 314-302-0602
Erika Soto Lamb: [email protected] or 646-580-5281

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns