When my sister was in high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, her Government teacher once asked the class to name the State Senators from our area. My sister answered (correctly) that my father was currently one of those State Senators. The teacher said she was wrong.

My sister was shocked – she said that my parents were sure spending a lot of time in Indianapolis unnecessarily, with my father going off to the Legislature each day, if he wasn’t in the State Senate. The teacher’s response was that my father’s name wasn’t on the list (obviously outdated) he was using to teach Government.

Maybe you’ve had similar instances where you were right and the “official� answer was wrong. Without a lot of self-confidence, or direct information like my sister had, it’s easy to get confused and misled.

Fast-forward to October 2008. Then, the newest applicants for United States citizenship will see the Redesigned Naturalization Test [pdf document], given by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). After test-takers read Question 51, new immigrants could be asking, “Who picks these answers?�

Question 51, as well as the acceptable answers provided by the USCIS, are reproduced here verbatim:

51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?

• freedom of expression
• freedom of speech
• freedom of assembly
• freedom to petition the government
• freedom of worship
• the right to bear arms

Now, while the USCIS does indicate that it “is aware that the 100 items [on the new test] sometimes have answers that are not listed,� it also suggests that “applicants … learn all the content … from the list.�

No doubt you have already observed at least three problems with the answers provided. First, the USCIS mentions only one “right� in this list along with five “freedoms.� Have mercy on the student who contemplates the difference between civil rights and civil liberties and wonders if this is a trick question.

Next, the USCIS neglects eight out of the ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights, including: the right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers and effects� (Fourth); the right against self-incrimination (Fifth); the right to a speedy and public trial (Sixth); and the right to a trial by jury (Seventh). With so many rights to choose from, it’s as if the USCIS got tired of reading the whole Constitution.

Finally, the “right to bear arms� is, in fact, not available to “everyone living in the United States.� While the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to revisit this matter in the DC vs. Heller case, the vast majority of the courts have previously ruled that the right of the people to keep and bear arms must be related to service in a well-regulated militia. In addition, well-established and unchallenged Federal law prohibits “many living in the United States,� including juveniles, felons and the dangerously mentally ill (among other categories) from legally possessing guns.

The answers picked by the USCIS appear to predict an uncertain U.S. Supreme Court outcome and also misrepresent the Gun Control Act of 1968.

If we are going to test citizens – whether natural born or naturalized – on the U.S. Constitution, perhaps the test makers should do their homework first. On Question 51, at least, the USCIS gets an ‘F’.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

The victims of gun violence include working-class families in our nation’s cities, high school students in the suburbs, as well as rural Americans who suffer in high numbers from our nation’s gun suicide problem. Urban America, however, suffers from a gun violence epidemic out of all proportion to the rest of the country. This is especially the case in the African-American community.

In August, the U.S. Department of Justice released a special report [pdf document] titled, Black Victims of Violent Crime, that showed just how staggering the difference is. “While blacks accounted for 13% of the U.S. population in 2005,� the report said, “they were victims in … nearly half [49%] of all homicides.�

The report continued, “Black victims of homicide were most likely to be male (85%) and between ages 17 and 29 (51%). …About 53% of homicides against blacks in 2005 took place in areas with populations of at least 250,000 people, compared to about 33% of homicides of white victims.� With regard to guns, the DOJ reported that “[b]lacks were killed with firearms in about 77% of homicides against them in 2005, compared to 60% of white homicide victims.�

These numbers may be new to some, but the experiences behind them are far too familiar for too many of our fellow Americans. Too many men, women and young people go to work and school every day and play by the rules, only to then worry about dodging bullets on their way home. And way too many of us feel that this state of affairs is “normal,� or isn’t really our concern, and that there’s nothing we can do to make these neighborhoods safer.

That’s wrong. It should concern us all, and there is much we can do.

While social scientists and dedicated community activists work hard to address the social issues related to this violence, we should do everything we can on the other side of the equation to keep illegal guns off the street and out of criminal hands – to give social policies a chance to work, and law-abiding residents of a neighborhood the chance to live and prosper.

In the short run, bills like the NICS Improvement Act – designed to fill the “records gap� in the Brady gun purchasing background check system – are a step in the right direction. It is stalled in the Senate, so we should do all we can to see that it is brought to a vote as soon as possible. But there is much, much more we can do in the effort to drastically cut gun murders: Limit bulk firearm purchases to reduce illegal gun sales; increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to crack down on corrupt gun dealers who sell to obvious “straw purchasers� and don’t follow the rules; and, require a background check for every single gun sale. No background check, no sale. No exceptions.

The DOJ report reveals a serious and complex problem. No single organization can solve it alone. But we can each do our part to make America safer, and I hope you will join us in that effort.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

The Student Pledge Against Gun Violence is simple. It reads:

“I will never bring a gun to school.

“I will never use a gun to settle a personal problem or dispute.

“I will use my influence with my friends to keep them from using guns to settle disputes.

“My individual choices and actions, when multiplied by those of young people throughout the country, will make a difference. Together, by honoring this pledge, we can reverse the violence and grow up in safety.�

In 1996, the United States Senate passed a resolution [pdf document] proclaiming the first Day of National Concern, followed by a Presidential Proclamation by President Bill Clinton. Since then, more than ten million young people have signed on to this pledge.

Ryan Vigil decided to convince as many of his classmates as he could at Highlands High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico to sign it, too.

And then, last Thursday, he was gunned down.

Ryan – a third-baseman for his school’s baseball team – participated in an ill-advised schoolboy prank with some of his friends as they drove around town and tossed golf balls at people. The kids reportedly tossed some at an alleged methamphetamine user, who later found the boys and allegedly shot Ryan in the head.

“[Ryan] always had a smile on his face,” Highlands High School baseball coach Anthony Lovato said. He had an extremely hard work ethic – [he was] a great kid to be around.â€�

Today is the National Day of Concern for 2007, a day when we can all rededicate ourselves to preventing even one more senseless gun death. We can remember Ryan, and remember the pledge that he and many of his classmates believed in and signed.

And we can also simply consider the words of Ryan’s High School Principal, Nikki Dennis, who said, “If you write any headline, he’s an example of the random violence facing our nation.

“Write that he was a good kid, a really good kid.�

I wish you could have been in the room with me today.

Fourteen surviving family members and injured survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre stood inside Room S-115 of the U.S. Capitol this morning and faced their pain in a very public way.

They displayed tremendous personal strength, and directed their anguish not toward revenge, but instead to public service. They advocated for a bill pending in Congress that would come too late for themselves or their children, but that might save others from the fate they suffered. These individuals came to Washington, D.C. to deliver a letter signed by over 50 in their same position, a letter that calls on the U.S. Congress to stop dragging their feet.

It is time to pass the NICS Improvement Act of 2007 and send it to the President for his signature.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Peter Read said it succinctly. His daughter, Mary Karen Read, was murdered at Virginia Tech. Today at the Capitol he declared, “We are here today with a very simple message: Pass this bill. Send it to the President’s desk. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.â€�

“We need Congress to help make some good come out of a tremendous evil,â€� Col. Read said, “so we can all be confident that Mary and our other loved ones didn’t die in vain.â€�

Exactly six months ago today on April 16 – a date the families call their “personal 9/11� – scores of lives on the Virginia Tech campus were shattered. A half-year has passed since a deranged gunman swept through the West Ambler Johnston dormitory, and then Norris Hall, shooting over 170 rounds of ammunition with two semi-automatic handguns that he purchased at gun stores. He murdered 32 and wounded over 17 others.

In Congress, nothing has been passed into law since then in response to this tragedy.

Though the shooter was found by a court to be a danger to himself to due to mental illness – and thus prohibited from legally purchasing firearms by the gun Control Act of 1968 – he passed two background checks and walked out of two guns stores fully armed. Had the NICS background check system had complete information, the shooter would have been denied the approval to purchase those guns.

The NICS Improvement Act is designed to help prevent a tragedy like this. It will result in the placement of records of hundreds of thousands of people who are already considered “prohibited purchasers� because they have been adjudicated dangerously mentally ill into the background check system, and thus make future tragedies like Virginia Tech less likely.

As president of the Brady Campaign, I was humbled to stand today with the families and survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting. Their stories were heart-rending and their actions today were a courageous, and selfless, act of public service.

Congress must hear their voices, and heed their call.

It is time for Congress to pass the NICS Improvement Act of 2007 and send it to President Bush for his signature.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

California police got some welcome news this weekend.

On Saturday, October 13, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sided with over 65 police chiefs, sheriffs and police organizations – representing cities and towns across the state of California – and signed the Crime Gun Identification Act of 2007 into law. This bill requires that, by 2010, all semi-automatic handguns sold in the state of California be fitted with a technology to help police officers solve gun crimes faster – even when the gun is unavailable.

A fuller discussion of this technology, called “microstamping,� is available here [.wmv file] in an excellent video presentation, as well as in a blog entry I posted back in August. In a nutshell, a firearm that is fitted with the technology has microscopic marks of the make, model and serial number of the weapon engraved on the firing pin, as well as other parts inside the weapon. Each time the handgun is fired, these engravings are impressed on the primer cap and other parts of the shell casing. These shell-casing marks are then visible under a scanning electron microscope – standard equipment used in almost all crime labs.

Approximately 45% of all homicides in California go unsolved due to lack of evidence. Roughly 60% of homicides in California are committed with handguns, according to 2004 data, and about 70% of new handguns sold in California are semi-automatic. Oftentimes, the only evidence left behind at the scene of a gun crime are the shell casings. No gun to be found. The Crime Gun Identification Act is targeted at precisely this problem. Now, police will be able to use shell casings that the gun fired – marked with the make, model and serial number of the weapon – to trace the gun back to its first purchaser. That means more gun crimes solved – and fewer criminals on the street.

The Brady Campaign was proud to help the determined efforts of Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-42) and our California Brady Chapters, and join the overwhelming law enforcement support of this bill, including: the California Police Chiefs Association, the Orange County Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Association, the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, in addition to 65 police chiefs and sheriffs throughout the state.

Sadly, the gun lobby – led the National Rifle Association, the gun manufacturers’ trade association, and the extremist Gun Owners of California – fought bitterly to kill this bill. But Gov. Schwarzenegger saw past all that and found the clear preference of California police.

The choice was simple.

In his signing message, the Governor reaffirmed that “Public safety is one of the most important roles of government� and he is right. As a former mayor, I had the same duty to protect the public safety of my city and support police officers in their difficult work. It is gratifying to see a fellow Republican stand up to the gun lobby, support the needs of law enforcement, and do what’s right for the people who elected him.

Saturday was indeed a good day for law enforcement – and for the people of California.

*

Note that tomorrow is the six-month anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre. Survivors and surviving family members will make a trip to Capitol Hill here in Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning, and urge passage of the NICS Improvement Act (H.R. 2640), a bill designed to fill gaps in the Brady background check law that allowed the Virginia Tech killer to get his guns from gun stores. I will post a blog some time after the families’ presentation is finished and describe the day’s events.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)