For Immediate Release May 17, 2006
Contact: Bryan Miller (856) 371-3038
or Carole Stiller (609) 771-0937
LEADING GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUPS AND MAYOR PALMER CALL FOR END OF ILLEGAL GUN BUSINESS AT TRENTON CITY HALL
Grassroots Event at Kicks Off National Grassroots Campaign to Disrupt Illegal Gun Business
Trenton: Ceasefire NJ and the New Jersey Million Mom March jointly hosted a press conference this morning on the front steps of Trenton City Hall. They were joined by community leaders and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer. This event was one of 10 in various venues across the country part of the Kick-Off of a grassroots campaign to permanently disrupt the nation’s Illegal Gun trade.
Bryan Miller, Executive Director of Ceasefire NJ said: “We are here today to bring attention to the menacing business of Illegal Guns, whereby guns move with ease and in volume from legal sale at gun shops like this one to illegal street sale. Criminal entrepreneurs, gun traffickers, take advantage of weak federal and state gun laws to build illegal distribution networks and sell guns on street corners to thugs, across kitchen tables to drug dealers and on playgrounds to violent teens. These are the guns that end up being used to wound, maim and kill in our communities.”
Mayor Palmer said: “Early in my tenure I learned about the shock and grief caused by a gun homicide, when I had to call a family who had just lost one of their own to a shooting with an Illegal Gun. I will never forget that pain. I am determined to do what I can to reduce the burden on families and our law enforcers imposed by the violence resulting from the Illegal Gun trade, which is why I’m here today. We need to make the public aware of the damage done by Illegal Guns, so they will demand of policy makers that means to disrupt this deathly business are created and enforced.”
“Law enforcers know the danger presented by Illegal Guns,” said Carole Stiller, President of the New Jersey Million Mom March Chapters of the Brady Campaign. “They face these weapons every day and witness the devastation they create. We stand here today to lend our support to our law enforcers and those who would seek an end to the damaging Illegal Gun business.”
“We do not seek to impose unreasonable restrictions on law-abiding gun owners,” continued Miller. “Rather we are working toward disrupting the illegal trade that devastates our communities.”
Stiller closed with: “That there is a rising tide of gun homicide in our city and across the state is no secret. That this devastation is due to the easy availability of Illegal Guns cannot be doubted. But, sadly, public knowledge of the Illegal Gun trade is lacking to date. We here and those holding similar press conferences across the country are determined to make the public aware of the menacing business of Illegal Guns and how it hurts families and communities. Once the knowledge spreads, solutions will follow.”
