The Paris Resolution on Gun Violence in the US, December 14, 2017

On the fifth anniversary of the Newtown shooting, the Paris American community came together in remembrance and to discuss what policies could reduce the threat of gun violence to health and safety.

This resolution, presented in the form of a petition, was adopted unanimously, and now seeks broader support through an online petition.

 

The Paris Resolution
December 14, 2017
On the fifth anniversary of the Newtown shooting

Whereas the December 14, 2012, shooting deaths of twenty first grade children aged 6-7 years old and six adult staff members in Newtown, CT, shocked the world and called further attention to the public safety hazards of unmonitored and uncontrolled gun use in the United States;

Whereas we are deeply concerned that gun-related violence is entrenched in our society, with more than 30,000 men, women and children killed and 70,000 more injured by homicide, suicide and accidental shootings annually;

Whereas there are minimal safety requirements on the type of weapons available for purchase by private individuals in America, including military-style assault weapons;

Whereas we believe shooting deaths and injuries constitute a serious public health and safety issue, and that we can adopt policies that will reduce this carnage without unduly limiting the availability of firearms to law-abiding citizens for purposes of recreation or self-defense;

Whereas ten states (Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin) have adopted legislation to allow concealed weapons on school campuses in some regard;

Whereas in thirteen states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming) people can now carry concealed weapons without any permit at all, and residents of those states may be allowed, if the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 is passed, to carry their firearms throughout the United States, without regard to any contrary state gun safety regulations;

Whereas regulation of firearms to protect public health and safety in other countries, including Australia, Canada and throughout the European Union, has been demonstrated to reduce the number of gun deaths and violence, confirming that such violence is neither inevitable nor immune from legislative and regulatory policy reform.

Whereas our country continues to underfund the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, resulting in an incomplete background database and a lack of resources for the enforcement of public safety laws;

Whereas current laws restrict the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ("ATF" a part of the Department of Justice) to regulate public safety relating to gun violence;

Whereas federal government agencies are limited by the Dickey Amendment in conducting research to advance our knowledge of the sources and origins of gun violence in America, and accordingly prevented from contributing meaningfully to developing reasonable policy addressing this national public health and safety challenge;

Whereas the U.S. Supreme Court has held in District of Columbia v. Heller (554 U.S. 570) (2008) that the regulation of guns for public safety purposes is allowed under the Second Amendment of the Constitution ("nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms");

Whereas the NRA has garnered an outsized influence on gun policy in our country, leading to laws and regulations that threaten public safety and welfare by seeking constantly to increase the number of guns owned in the United States when it is precisely the proliferation of unregulated gun ownership that leads to increased gun violence;

Whereas our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the families of gun violence victims whose lives have been forever changed by senseless gun violence, but we recognize that much of this violence and suffering is preventable;

THEREFORE WE RESOLVE to call for action by the states and the federal government to pass effective measures to protect the American people from gun violence and the resulting pain and suffering in our communities.

AND WE FURTHER RESOLVE to call on our state legislative representatives and governors, our members of the U.S. House and Senate, and our President specifically to:

  1. Remove restrictions on and increase funding for research into gun safety through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health and others
  2. Authorize the ATF (Department of Justice) to regulate firearms as consumer products, to set minimum mandatory safety standards (such as requiring child-safe locking devices), to issue recalls of defective products and prohibit sales of firearms failing to meet minimum safety standards, and to disseminate safety information to the public, and generally to regulate the safety of firearms.
  3. Ban the sale of military-style assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or clips that can hold more than 10 bullets at a time;
  4. Require licensing and registration of private gun ownership and use similar to the requirements used for driving cars, and that includes,
    • universal criminal background checks at point of sale, including at gun shows;  
    • licensing and periodic license renewals that includes gun safety training (subject to a reasonable license fee);
    • creation of market incentives for safety, training and education, by requiring liability insurance to cover the potential risk to third parties and removing the firearms and ammunition exemption from the Consumer Product Safety Act;
    • requiring registration of guns, just as cars are registered to their owners (subject to a reasonable registration fee);  
    • requiring safe gun storage practices in the home for owner registration and renewals;
    • establishing schools and universities as gun-free zones.
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