For Immediate Release

CeaseFire Maryland calls for asking the right question in gun deaths

August 28th, 2003

Baltimore, MD: CeaseFire Maryland, the state’s leading gun violence prevention group, is saddened by yet another massacre of innocent people at work – this time by gunman, Salvadore Tapia, in Chicago yesterday.

The frequency and regularity of workplace killings in America has become numbingly familiar. Commenting on yesterday’s murders, Chicago Police Superintendent Cline said, ‘The problem here is easy access to a firearm. I mean here’s someone who never should have had a gun, that had a gun, and its tragic results from it.’ Leah Barrett, Executive Director of CeaseFire Maryland, commented: “This leads to a simple question that should be asked after every such tragedy: How did someone with a past criminal record such as Mr. Tapia’s get his gun? Mr. Tapia had been arrested many times in the past 14 years on various charges that included illegal possession of a weapon and domestic battery and assault.”

This autumn, attention will be focused on the trial of the Washington area snipers who, lest we forget, killed 10 people and wounded 3 last October. Because the three-week shooting binge riveted the nation’s attention, questions were asked about how the two snipers obtained their weapon, a Bushmaster assault rifle. And the trail led straight to Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply, the Tacoma, Washington gun store from which the rifle used in the shootings ‘mysteriously disappeared’, along with 238 other guns. It’s not a pretty story, but one that must be told if we are to address the root cause of much of the gun violence in America – cutting off the supply of illegal guns to criminals.

Barrett continued: “There are countless other instances where this question should be asked and answered in full. Yet the US Senate doesn’t seem to think this question is important. Last spring, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) introduced S. 659, an ill-conceived and reckless attempt to provide special legal protection for the gun industry at the expense of innocent Americans who have been harmed by the dangerous and irresponsible actions of firearms makers and sellers.” S. 659 has so far collected 54 co-sponsors and could be brought for a vote at any moment. Its companion bill, H.R. 1036, easily passed the House of Representatives on April 9th.

Robert Ricker, who served as Executive Director of a major gun industry trade association and was also a former Assistant General Counsel for the National Rifle Association, maintains that leaders in the gun industry have long known that greater industry action to prevent illegal transactions is possible but have resisted taking constructive voluntary action and have ‘sought to silence others within the industry.’ S. 659 would appear to be just what the gun industry ordered.

A UN survey on small arms released in July reveals that the US has by far the largest number of publicly owned guns in the world, approaching the point where there will be one gun for every American. Given this volume of lethal weapons, one would think that strenuous efforts would be made to keep guns out of the hands of people like Mr. Tapia. Yet we are seeing just the opposite with S. 659, a bill that would undermine the legal rights of individuals harmed by gun violence and provide unwarranted special immunity for the gun industry.