GUN OWNERS FOR RESPONSIBLE OWNERSHIP CALL FOR COMMON-SENSE ACTIONS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 27, 2022

Contact: Info@responsibleownership.org

We once again mourn the senseless loss of innocent lives from gun violence - this time in Buffalo and Uvalde.

We call for action.

We can break this vicious cycle.

We are gun owners who believe with rights come responsibilities.

We believe that gun owners can help lead the way to promote sensible laws and regulations

to reduce gun violence.

We believe in and support the following specific measures at the federal and state levels to help reduce gun violence:

1. Require background checks on all firearm sales including gun shows and private sales.

2. Increase the age requirement to 21 for all long gun sales to match existing

requirements for handgun sales.

3. Strictly regulate military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines under the National

Firearms Act (NFA) as machine guns are currently regulated.

4. Require safe and secure storage of firearms when not in use to help prevent child access

and reduce suicides.

5. Adopt, educate and enforce red flag laws/extreme risk protection orders to give family

members and law enforcement the tools to obtain a court order to remove firearms

when a family member is in crisis.

6. Remove immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.

7. Create and fund local community-based violence prevention programs.

8. Fund research into the causes and ways to reduce gun violence.

“We can only break this vicious cycle of gun violence if responsible gun owners step forward and help demand change” said GOFRO President and co-founder Paul Kemp. “If we don’t, we leave the field to the extremists and unscrupulous manufacturers who will only increase their marketing of weapons of war to troubled youth.”

“The actions we have listed here are supported by the vast majority of the American public including many gun owners.” said Tom O’Connor, GOFRO co-founder. “It won’t be easy to get Congress to act, but as parents and grandparents, how can we look at the pictures of those innocent children and not keep trying.”

Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership (GOFRO) was born in the aftermath of another mass shooting in December 2012 at the Clackamas Town Center in suburban Portland, Oregon. Two people were killed and a third wounded. Shoppers and employees fled in terror. All were strangers to the shooter, but to us they were family, friends, and neighbors.