Brady Campaign Fights to Protect Sensible Gun Laws, Focuses on Problem of Illegal Guns

We can stop illegal guns from pouring into our communities, which is why the Brady Campaign launched its national Campaign Against Illegal Guns, a landmark, multi-year campaign designed to expose the gun industry's complicity in feeding the illegal gun market and cut off the pipeline of illegal guns from licensed gun dealers into the hands of criminals. The NRA has always said we don't need new gun laws -- we just need to enforce those we currently have in order to reduce gun violence.

But instead of focusing on drying-up the illegal gun market, the NRA and their allies in Congress are trying to divert public attention from their involvement in and cover-up of reckless gun dealers by pushing through legislation that endangers public safety.

As unbelievable as it sounds, during the last three weeks, we have been intensely battling the NRA as it pushed through three bills in the U.S. Congress to weaken our gun laws. They won votes on legislation that would:

• Endanger the lives of children by repealing the law we passed last year that required gun dealers to provide child safety locks with every handgun sold;
• Forbid Law Enforcement from creating gun-free emergency shelters during times of disaster such as Hurricane Katrina -- that's right -- they want to make it legal to carry guns, including assault rifles, into emergency shelters; and
• Impede police investigations and keep secret the identity and other information about the 1% of federally-licensed gun dealers who are funneling guns to criminals and traffickers -- guns that end up on the streets in the wrong hands.

In addition, the NRA and the leadership in the House have pledged to push through even more legislation that would roll back existing gun laws. The Brady Campaign is working to stop them in their efforts to pass legislation that would:

• Cripple the effectiveness of local background checks mandated by the Brady Law and roll back portions of the 1968 Gun Control Act by allowing the interstate sale of handguns, which has been prohibited for nearly 40 years;
• Make it a crime for law enforcement agencies to share gun tracing information with each other, impeding efforts to combat gun violence; and
• Make it virtually impossible for law enforcement to shut down rogue gun dealers. And when they are shut down their bill allows the corrupt dealer to evade closure by easily transferring their business to friends or family.

The NRA thinks that any gun law is a bad law and they have long wanted to dismantle both the Brady background checks and the 1968 Gun Control Act. They feel they must strike now because there are only four legislative weeks remaining in this year's session for the NRA to do their dirty work.

If we hold them off until November's elections, we could have a different Congress that is willing to stand strong for gun control.

The Brady Campaign and our allies in law enforcement and federal, state, and local government are mobilizing to defeat these bills. We are committed to working around-the-clock until we succeed.

We need your support to stop this efforts of the NRA before they weaken the Brady Law ... secretly hide information about which gun dealers in your communities are funneling illegal guns to criminals and traffickers ... and make it a crime for law enforcement agencies to share crime gun information. Please make a $25 donation today.