Chief Scott M. Knight

Republican Congressman Mike Castle from Delaware had to ask Chief Knight to repeat his statistic. “Since 1963 more Americans have died from gunfire than perished in combat in the whole of the 20th century.”

Our country’s war losses are staggering and devastating to our families, but when you hear that we lose 30,000 Americans every year to gun violence, it does make you stop and think … and ask the question again.

Chief Knight is head of the Chaska, Minnesota’s police department and chair of the Firearms Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the largest association of law enforcement executives in the world.On July 14, 2010, Chief Knight provided testimony on H.R 2324, the bill to close the gun show loophole, at the first-ever Congressional Forum on the gun show loophole. Brady activists and Virginia Tech victims pressed Representative Bobby Scott (VA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, to hold the Forum.

That’s when Chief Knight’s statistic about America’s losses to gun violence struck disbelief among the Committee members and audience in the packed hearing room. “The loss of so many lives is senseless, but the solutions are obvious. The solid first step is to close the gun show loophole that allows the sale of guns on a cash and carry basis, with no identification required.”

Chief Knight’s fight for strict gun laws is not only professional. ” It’s personal,” he says. “A few years ago, one of my officers was shot in the line of duty. And last May, another officer, an uncle to one of my sergeants, was ambushed, shot and killed.”

Chief Knight actively speaks out for stronger gun laws every occasion he gets. In 2007, he joined other law enforcement at a Brady press conference urging Congress to repeal the Tiahrt provision that limits law enforcement’s access to crime trace data that would help solve gun crimes. He also advocates for reporting of lost or stolen guns; safe storage of firearms and ammunition, especially around children; and limits on the kinds of guns and ammunition that can be purchased. “Military assault weapons and armor-piercing bullets do not belong on our streets. We’re being outgunned. It’s like law enforcement is in an arms race with criminals.”

But Chief Knight also recognizes the challenge of moving legislators to side with law enforcement in enacting strict, life-saving gun laws. “We need partners in every community, we need elected officials in Congress and in state legislatures to stop catering to special interests and instead act in the public interest to reduce the terrible, and escalating, risk of gun violence in America.”

CLICK HERE to tell your U.S. Senators to take action to CLOSE THE GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE!

“When we are organized, we can do something,” says Joan Peterson, national representative to the Board of Directors of the Brady Campaign, and a leading voice for Protect Minnesota, the result of an operating merger between Citizens for a Safer Minnesota and the Minnesota Million Mom March. Joan says that email activist campaigns have made all the difference in local advocates’ ability to build momentum to help pass strong gun laws – or defeat bad ones.

Minnesota’s gun violence prevention and other advocacy groups have pooled resources to pay for Democracy in Action, a web-based tool that makes possible an e-mail network and e-alerts to Congress. Joan admits that working together through the e-mail network “has made us stronger as a group. Since we are now using one state monthly e-mail and one state newsletter, we can call attention to issues as they come up in one voice.”
The fundraisers also helped cover the cost of Minnesota News Connection, a public radio program and news service. Joan and other advocates have helped shape MNC coverage of the gun violence issue. Joan was interviewed about the Fort Hood shootings recently. The story was picked up by local states and reached more than 700,000 listeners in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Fargo, North Dakota.

Minnesota’s united voices have also brought about major victories for common sense gun laws. This past summer, e-mail campaigns among the Minnesota groups helped put pressure on Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar to vote against South Dakota Senator John Thune’s amendment on national concealed carry legislation. At a reception for the area’s nonprofit organizations attended by Senator Franken, Joan did a bee-line for the Senator and thanked him personally for his vote.

It has also made the difference in coordinating efforts quickly. The day that Todd Palin, husband of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, showed up at a local gun store, Joan pulled together a group of protesters real fast through emails to multiple listservs.

“People came with signs. ‘Hunters for Obama’ were there, and then, it turned out so was National Rifle Association President Wayne Lapierre!” Joan did a television interview on the spot – with the rallied supporters behind her – and presented her contrasting view on the gun issue.

Joan witnessed the power of many voices when she went to Washington, DC in 2000 for the Million Mom March. “The march gave us a vehicle to talk about gun violence, to raise awareness about it.” Joan, whose sister was shot to death, recalls the T-shirts and signs commemorating loved ones. “There are a lot of us,” she remembers realizing that day. Joan met Mary Streufert, founding co-president of the Northland Chapter, at the march. Pictures of their loved ones were right next to each other.

The Northland Chapter is in Minnesota’s District 8, one of the Brady Campaign’s targeted districts to build long-term political support for common sense gun laws. The focus now is on H.R. 2324 and S. 843, the House and Senate bills to close the gun show loophole. Representative Jim Oberstar, a Democrat with a B+-rating from the NRA, holds the seat, and according to Joan’s conversations with him and his aides, the Congressman is open to learning more about legislative solutions to gun violence. Joan knows that the voices of victims and “gun guys” can be especially effective.

“We make sure they hear from victims and gun owners in the district. We’ve also forged relationships with our Mayors in Duluth, Minneapolis, and St Paul, as well as with law enforcement. And we let our legislators hear from us – from gun violence prevention groups and from other area organizations. We let them know that all of us are watching them and holding them accountable.”

Mindy Finkelstein was in the right place at the right time – playing capture the flag on a sunny morning with five and six year old campers at the North Valley Jewish Community Center’s summer camp. On their way to the arts and crafts, though, it all went wrong.

That’s when Mindy was shot … along with three campers … by a self-proclaimed new-Nazi, out on parole and clinically insane. He got his weapon, a semi-automatic weapon, at a gun show.
“In an instant my campers went from running across the back grassy field to asking me if I had paint all over me. It was blood,” Mindy remembers. “It has been ten years and I can still remember every detail of that day and the feelings I had as a result.”

Mindy’s shooter was out on parole from the state of Washington. He crossed the state line into California, and he was criminally insane. He even tried to lock himself in a mental hospital and was denied entrance. He was so ill that, from what Mindy was told, the Aryan Nation kicked him out for being “a threat to their cause.” Yet, he was able to walk into a gun show and legally purchase his murder weapon.

“My opinion on gun legislation is simple,” Mindy explains. “It’s narrowed down to common sense and personal safety.

“Everyone makes the comparison that you have to have a license to drive a car but not to own a gun. For me it’s even less complicated than that. A car’s sole intent is to help get people from place to place. A sole purpose of a gun is to kill. So, making it harder to get a gun should be obvious.” Her shooter took advantage of the loophole in the sale of guns at gun shows. Private sellers at gun shows are not required to conduct Brady background checks on purchasers. “Bufford Furrow bought the gun he used against me without a background check or waiting period.”

Mindy became involved with the Brady Campaign after she spoke to nearly a million people at the Million Mom March in 2000. Mindy works with the San Fernando Chapter of the Brady Campaign, and recently organized the Victory over Violence 5K and 10K walk-a-thons to benefit the local Women against Gun Violence group. And she is a frequent speaker for schools, churches and congregrations, and civic groups, speaking out about gun violence and for common sense gun laws.

“At a recent Brady event, I met the father of one of the Virginia Tech victims who told me that I have a responsibility to speak for his daughter so that she could also lend her silenced voice to the cause. This is a responsibility that I don’t take lightly… and never will. I can’t bring back or replace the victims of gun violence in any way but what I can do is use my face and voice to show the truth behind gun violence. That’s why I continue to work with Brady to strengthen our country’s gun laws – especially to close the gun show loophole that threatened the life of me and my campers’ – and today still puts our communities at risk.”

CLICK HERE to tell your U.S. Representative to CLOSE THE GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE!