10 L E H A V R EN E W SJANUARY op-ed Inquiring Photographer: Gun violence is a COMPILED BY SWEETINA KAKAR national epidemic What is your New BY MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG Year’s resolution? EDITOR’S NOTE: The following are Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s remarks as delivered at City Hall: Since last Friday’s tragedy in Connecticut, dozens of grieving parents and grandparents, and an entire deeply wounded community, now know the kind of anguish that these people with me have endured. What happened in Newtown was an unspeakable crime – a mass murder in which six- and seven-year-old children were gunned down in their classrooms, along with their elementary school teachers and administrators. To all those who lost loved ones: our hearts are broken and our prayers To make money because To eat better. To keep the weight off. certainly are with you. I’m blessed with everything ADAM BREIDBART I lost 40 pounds in the last Last night, the President said he else. year. would use whatever powers his offi ce BARBARA LEED TOM KING holds to address this violence, and I think it is critical that he do so. Words alone cannot heal our nation. Only action can do that. Gun violence is a national epidemic – and a national tragedy – that demands more than words. We are the only industrialized country that has this problem. In the whole world, the only one. That’s why we need immediate national action, from the President and from Congress. It should be at the top of their agenda because what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School was, sadly, no aberration. Gun violence takes the lives of 34 Americans every single day. That means that during President Obama’s next four-year term, some 48,000 Americans will be killed with guns. That’s roughly the number of Americans that died in the Vietnam War. And since 1968, when RFK and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, roughly 400,000 Americans have been killed with guns, which is more Americans than died in World War II. They will leave behind mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and neighbors, like those with us today, whose lives are devastated by loss. The President spoke out visibly on gun violence after the mass shooting To travel more. To go to Italy. To be more open minded. in Tucson two years ago. Yet since those shootings happened, more than ELISA ZEIZVOS BONNIE MUND GIL NUSSBAUM 24,100 Americans have been murdered with guns. If the massacre in Tucson wasn’t enough to make our national leaders act, and if the more recent bloodshed in Aurora, Colorado, in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in Portland, Oregon and other cities and towns wasn’t enough, perhaps this slaughter of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School will, at long last, be enough. We have to speak up. LeHavre Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd.Millions of Americans hope that’s true. But it’s not enough for us to hope. There are three major pieces of legislation that the President should Bayside, NY 11361 push Congress to pass. Let me point out that one of the few acts related to 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 fi rearms that Congress has passed in recent years was to immunize fi rearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits brought by those injured with guns. Sales Fax: 718-631-3498 the “private sale loophole” that allows more than 40 percent of gun sales “We’re All About You” e-mail: [email protected], Congress should pass the Fix Gun Checks Act, which would close to go through without a background check. It would require every gun buyer to pass a background check. This bill would also require states and the federal government to send all necessary records on felons, UBLISHER & EDITOR Victoria Schneps-Yunis ART DIRECTOR Jennifer DecioP domestic abusers, the seriously mentally ill, and other dangerous people ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Joshua A. Schneps ARTISTS Stephen Reina to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. EDITOR IN CHIEF Toni Cimino Nirmal SinghSecond, it is time to pass an enforceable and effective assault weapons ban – one that isn’t riddled with loopholes and easy evasion. A previous ban Ron Torina expired in 2004, and even though President Bush supported reinstating it, Entire Contents Copyright 2012 by the LeHavre Courier. All letters sent to LEHAVRE COURIER should be brief and are subject Congress never acted. That must change. to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, And third, the President and Congress should work together to make indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Only letters with a name given will be accepted. No such ad or any gun traffi cking a felony – as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressmember part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of LEHAVRE COURIER. The publishers will not be responsible for any Carolyn Maloney, and others have proposed. error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to LEHAVRE COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. LEHAVRE COURIER assumes no liability for We urge the President to include all three of these steps in any legislative the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold package he sends to Congress. And we urge him to assemble a legislative LEHAVRE COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the package quickly – so that gun violence can be the fi rst order of business that publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. the new Congress takes up when it convenes in January. 10 LEHAVRE COURIER | JANUARY 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM
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