Children's Defense Fund

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August 13, 2004  
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Ron Eckstein: (202) 662-3609
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Marian Wright Edelman Calls for
Renewal of Assault Weapons Ban

Washington, D.C. Exactly one month from today the ten-year-old Assault Weapons Ban expires. Congress has only five scheduled legislative days left to pass an extension before gun manufacturers begin producing the semi-automatic, military-style weapons for sale in communities across America. Children's Defense Fund president and founder Marian Wright Edelman issued the following statement calling on President Bush and Congress to act to protect our children:

"If the ten-year ban on assault weapons is allowed to expire one month from today, America's streets will be more dangerous for children. The silence from our elected officials—ranging from President Bush to Members of Congress—has been shameful. The vast majority of Americans, including every major law enforcement organization and nearly 900 police chiefs from across the country, do not want assault weapons returned to our streets. The undue influence of the National Rifle Association over our elected leaders comes at great expense to our children.

Earlier this year, the Senate passed an amendment to renew the Assault Weapons Ban, prompting the NRA to exercise its clout to defeat the entire underlying bill rather than allow the Ban to be renewed. We cannot stand idly by while a vocal group with a radical agenda endangers our families.

It is unconscionable that our elected officials allow themselves to be held hostage by this extremist lobby. Elected officials should remember that their inaction has consequences, and failure to renew the Assault Weapons Ban will mean that these weapons of mass death will flood our neighborhoods. Gun deaths for children, which increased for a decade leading up to the Assault Weapons Ban, have dropped 25 percent in the decade since the Ban was passed. Assault weapons are designed for one purpose: to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Returning them to our streets can only take us backwards in our fight for children's lives. The production lines in the assault weapon factories have started up again in anticipation of the ban's sunset one month from today. It is time for President Bush and Congress to shut them down forever."

 

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The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.

 

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