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The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), (Coalition) was founded in 1974 to combat the growing gun violence problem in the United States. CSGV is a unique coalition of more than forty religious, professional, labor, medical, educational and civic organizations. The Coalition counts more than 100,000 individual supporters nationwide. The goal of CSGV is the orderly elimination of the private sale of handguns and assault weapons in the United States. The CSGV seeks to “ban handguns and assault weapons from importation, manufacture, sale and transfer by the General American public” (www.gunfree.com/2-12-00). Reasonable exceptions made for police, military, security personnel, gun clubs where guns are secured on club premises, gun dealers trading in antique and collectable firearms kept and sold in inoperable condition. “Hunting weapons, such as shotguns and rifles would be unaffected by these bans, because they do not pose a large threat to the American public the way handguns and assault weapons do,” the Coalition states.

In addition to a ban, the Coalition supports intermediate steps to reducing gun violence. These steps include: limiting the availability of gun dealers licenses; increasing gun dealers license fees; restrictively licensing and registering gun owners; increasing the handgun and ammunition taxes to offset health care costs; imposing strict liability for gun manufacturers and dealers; regulating firearms as consumer products; banning Saturday Night Specials; and establishing a national one-handgun-a-month purchase limit.

To accomplish these goals, CSGV engages in a vigorous program of lobbying the US Congress and state legislatures. CSGV provides technical support to activist organizations across the country and is building the Cease-fire Action Network, a national network of grassroots activists dedicated to stopping gun violence.

The template for the ultimate solution against guns can be seen to the north, in Canada. Owners have had to register handguns there since 1934. A far more constricting law was passed after a 1989 case in Montreal when a young man shot 23 people at a college, killing 14, and then shot himself.

“In what many gun control advocates hope will be a North American awakening for tighter controls on firearms,” (New York Times) reported recently, “all Canadian gun owners must obtain licenses by the end of next year and register their guns by the end of 2002.”

In conclusion there are valid reasons for why certain people feel that gun control is unfair. People against gun control feel that it is a violation of the Constitution to control the sale and distribution and the registration of guns and gun owners. But it is necessary for there to be certain limits on the way in which firearms are handled in this country because of the homicide rate involving guns and because of the violence created by criminals, and teenagers using guns. If gun control legislation were to go through there would be a significant decline in gun-related crimes and fatalities.

Http://www.gunfree.org/, 2/12/00. Welcome to Gunfree.

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