Open letter, May 6, 2011
In response to the recent election, we, the mothers of victims of gun violence, are calling on politicians to stand up for public safety. During the election it became clear that many candidates were ill-informed about how important the gun registry is as a tool for police.
The Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol that Jared Loughner is accused of using in his rampage in Tucson, Arizona, is, according to Glock's website, "ideal for versatile use through reduced dimensions" and is "suitable for concealed carry." The site continues, "Compact and subcompact Glock pistol model magazines can be loaded with a convincing number of rounds," from the standard 15 up to 33. The shooter was able to kill and wound to the extent that he did, with six dead and 13 injured, because he had a semiautomatic, concealed weapon, along with the "extended magazine." He was attempting to reload the weapon with another extended magazine when a brave, unarmed woman knocked his next clip from his hand.
To commemorate December 6, the day when 14 women were massacred in Montreal's Polytechnical Institute in 1989, and in protest of the violence which women continue to suffer in Québec, Canada and around the world, we, the Collective of Women of Diverse Origins whole-heartedly supports the resolutions which came out of the Workshop on Violence Against Women, at the Montreal International Women's Conference August 13-15, 2010.
The workshop was attended by women from around the world; the conference brought together over 400 participants from 32 countries. It culminated in the forming of an anti-imperialist International Women's Alliance.
October 22, 2010 For immediate release:
Victims of gun violence and public safety experts expressed their shock at comments by mayoralty candidate Rob Ford on gun control.
On a list of favourite activities, renewing my car registration would rank rather low. Still, having done it recently, I can attest that it didn't feel like an assault on my freedom.
Other car owners with me in line seemed similarly undisturbed, apparently realizing this was part of a rather sensible system of licensing and registering drivers and vehicles in an attempt to ensure that the powerful, motorized vehicles we drive at great speeds kill and injure fewer people.
Yet, strangely, this week parliamentarians seem set to vote for a Conservative private member's bill to scrap a registry that provides a similar system of regulatory control -- but for a product that is far more likely to kill.
Wendy Cukier is the president of the Coalition for Gun Control (CGC) and a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. The CGC is an alliance of more than 300 policing, public safety and violence prevention organizations including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Canadian Public Health Association, and YWCA of Canada. The coalition was founded after the Montreal Massacre in 1989, when 14 women were shot to death and 13 more were injured at the École Polytechnique de Montréal.
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![Karl Nerenberg](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/Karl.jpg "Karl Nerenberg joins rabble to cover news for the rest of us from Parliament Hill. Karl has been a journalist for over 25 years including eight years as the producer of the CBC show The House. He has written scripts for documentary films and long-form television reports for such shows as Le Point and Actuel on Radio Canada television and The Journal on CBC-TV. Karl also founded and, for five years, edited the magazine Federations: What's new in federalism worldwide.
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