Norton to Use D.C.’s Ordeal with the Gun Lobby at March on Washington for Gun Safety Saturday
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who has long fought the National Rifle Association's (NRA) attempts to override D.C.'s gun safety laws in Congress, will be among the speakers at the March on Washington for Gun Controlon Saturday, January 26, 2013, at 10:45 a.m.The march will beginat the Capitol Reflecting Pool on3rd Street NW, and endat the Washington Monument.
Congresswoman Norton is already geared up to counter recent attacks on D.C.'s gun safety laws by Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA), who on Tuesday reintroduced a resolution (H.RES. 40) expressing the sense of the House that active duty military personnel should be exempt from D.C.'s. gun laws, but not those of any other state or locality. The Gingrey resolution, which Norton got removed from the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, was introduced on the same day that Senate Democrats indicated that they intend to allow an open amendment process when they bring post-Newtown gun reform legislation to the Senate floor, increasing the risk not only to the District's gun safety laws but also to all of the administration's recommendations for legislation. "The non-binding Gingrey resolution is the tip of the iceberg of pro-gun amendments that will threaten the nation, not to mention the District, which is especially vulnerable to the extremism of the NRA. However, the slaughter of the 26 elementary school children and adults in Newtown has created new allies that will ensure that the gun lobby, for the first time in a generation, does not get its way."
Norton is a member of the House Democratic Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, which is developing a comprehensive approach to reduce gun violence and strengthen our nation's gun safety laws. Among others speaking at the march are Congressman Christopher VanHollen (D-MD); Shannon Watts, Founder, One Million Moms for Gun Control; a Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence official; Paul Oakley Stovall, Actor, Playwright, Gun Violence Survivor; Actors Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston; and prominent clergy.
Published: January 25, 2013