Norton Introduces Resolution to Designate June as “National Gun Violence Awareness Month” to Encourage Action on Gun Safety

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A day after joining District of Columbia college students who came to the Capitol to honor the mass shooting victims at Oregon's Umpqua Community College and to call for national gun safety legislation, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution to designate June as "National Gun Violence Awareness Month." Norton said she hopes that her effort through this resolution encourages others to find ways to keep the pressure on Congress to pass national gun safety laws. Norton chose June as the month to focus on gun safety because summer is the season with the highest rates of gun violence.

"Mass shootings have rallied a majority of Americans to support national gun safety laws, such as expanding background checks to cover all gun purchases," Norton said. "Yet, we have been unable to get the Congress to pass gun safety laws because the American public tends to fade away until the next mass shooting. The only way we can turn this Congress around is finding ways to keep calling for action on gun safety. I hope Americans will engage on this issue, as our D.C. college students did. My resolution is just one of many needed attempts to keep gun safety in front of the American public beyond the wake of tragedies."

Norton has prevented the House and Senate from considering bills to eliminate all of D.C.'s gun safety laws, and kept any riders to eliminate the city's gun safety laws from being included in the House or Senate fiscal year 2016 D.C. Appropriations bills.