1. Illinois Advocates Focus on Assault Weapons at Protest Against President Bush's Appearance
2. Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence Launches Campaign Against Illegal Guns
3. Minnesota Advocates Decry Loss of Young Lives to Gun Violence
4. Wisconsin Press Event Highlights America's Worst Gun Dealer and the Unreasonable Restrictions on Crime Gun Trace Data
5. Washington State Senate Leaders Call for Background Checks at Gun Shows

Last month, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, the Blagojevich for Governor Campaign joined gun violence prevention advocates in a protest against President Bush and Republican gubernatorial challenger Judy Baar-Topinka. The President was in town to help raise money for Baar-Topinka. Working with the Bush administration, Congress let the federal ban on assault weapons expire in 2004, and Topinka opposes a state ban on assault weapons. Protestors held up signs proclaiming "Bush and Topinka: Wrong on Assault Weapons."

Brady Campaign Field Director Jennifer Bishop, who is also a victim of gun violence, was quoted saying: "Bush's deliberate inaction on allowing the federal Assault Weapons Ban to expire has taken our country in the wrong direction, and as an ally of the NRA and a supporter of Bush's policies, Topinka would only do the same for Illinois. We simply cannot afford to have a Governor who believes that assault weapons belong on our streets and in our communities, and Topinka would allow exactly that."

Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence has followed the Brady Campaign's national efforts by kicking-off a statewide Campaign Against Illegal Guns. The campaign will include a three-pronged approach of collaboration, education, and legislation to tackle the issue of illegal guns. The Portland Million Mom March Chapter, legislators, members of the Maine law enforcement community and other community leaders enthusiastically endorsed the campaign at the kick-off.

At a press conference in Minneapolis, gun violence prevention leaders joined with leaders of the Minnesota Children's Defense Fund (CDF) to raise public awareness about the devastating cost of gun violence to America's children. In June, CDF issued its report of child gun deaths, Protect Children, Not Guns. The report documented that 2,827 U.S. children ages 0-19 died from gunshots in 2003 -- more than the number of American soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq from 2003 to April 2006. In Minnesota, forty children were killed with guns in 2003, and more than four times as many suffered injuries from bullets. Click here to view the full report.

During the NRA Convention in Milwaukee, Brady staff joined local activists at a press event held outside the storefront of the nation's worst gun dealer to bring attention to the Brady Center's groundbreaking new report, Without A Trace as part of the nationwide launch of the Campaign Against Illegal Guns. Badger Outdoors of West Milwaukee has the highest number of traces to crime guns, according to government data obtained by the Brady Center. Without A Trace focuses on how the gun lobby has protected corrupt gun dealers, like Badger Outdoors, by systematically blocking the release of information identifying the 1% of gun dealers responsible for selling more than 60% of the crime guns recovered in America.

The Chairman of the Washington State Senate Judiciary Committee, Adam Kline (D-Seattle), and the sponsor of background check legislation, Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), co-authored an opinion article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer calling for passage of three sensible gun control measures, including requiring Brady background checks at gun shows.

The authors noted that both California and Oregon require Brady background checks at gun shows, making Washington the only state on the West Coast to look the other way as felons and domestic violence abusers pick-up guns at gun shows without a Brady background check.

This article continues a string of media attention to the gun issue in the state of Washington fueled by a mass shooting in Seattle this spring. Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols has joined New York City Mayor Bloomberg's national Mayor's Coalition to strengthen gun laws.