No Guns...

USA Today featured a full-page ad from "Handgun Control" on 9 June 1999 which is "An Open Letter to the National Rifle Association"; it is signed by hundreds of celebrities, including Whitney Houston. This is the text of the ad kindly reproduced by Chip:

We are not "gun haters". But we hate what guns are doing to our communities, our schools, our families and, most especially, our children. Guns do not bleed. Children do. Every day we lose nearly 13 children to gun violence in this country. A classroom every other day. This debate is not about guns. It's about our children. Whatever you think about the 2nd Amendment, our children do not have a "right to keep and bear arms." In fact, it's not about anyone's right to own a firearm. It's about everyone's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It's about the responsibility that we all have for keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, children and other prohibited purchasers. It's about the simple things that gun owners and non-gun owners alike can do to prevent children and other prohibited purchasers from getting guns.

We stand for these basic principles:

• No child should have unsupervised access to a firearm.
• No handgun should be sold without a child safety lock.
• No gun should be sold without a background check. No exceptions.
• There should be a minimum waiting period of 72 hours on all handgun purchases to provide a "cooling off" period and to give police time to complete a thorough background check.
• No one should be able to buy more than one handgun per month. The only people who need to buy more than twelve handguns per year are the professional gun trafficers who make a living reselling guns to children and criminals.
• No more semi-automatic assault weapons. No more ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds. We don't need more killing power on our streets.

If we do all these things, not a single law-abiding adult would be denied a firearm for self defense, for recreation or any other legitimate purpose. Not a single one. But we might just save the life of a child and spare some family a lifetime of sorrow. Is that too much to ask?

NEWSFILE: 11 JUNE 1999