Thank you to all who made the Washington CeaseFire Annual Luncheon such a success this year.Attendance was at a record level as it's become more and more clear that the problem of gun-violence is the preeminent public safety issue of our time.
A special thank you to our Master of Ceremonies Dave Ross and to Kristina Anderson for telling the story of the terror at Virginia Tech.
And congratulations to both Representative Mike Hope and to Reverend Sandy Brown, this year's award winners for their exceptional work to bring public attention to the issue.

New on Crosscut

WHY GUN CONTROL IS SO HARD: Hint, it's not the NRA
By Ralph Fascitelli : President, Washington CeaseFire

Many people are wondering how a basic, common sense law like universal background checks for gun purchases can fail in both D.C. and Olympia. Polls show that on the state and national level, the idea enjoys the support of approximately 9 out of 10 voters.

The public acceptance of the idea makes sense. After all, we don’t get to drive a car if we have a history of drunk driving, so why should somebody with a felony or domestic violence problems or someone involuntarily committed for mental illness be able to buy an unlimited number of firearms at gun shows or online, no questions asked?

The explanation for the failure in the state and the nation's capital is not the clout of the NRA or the gun manufacturers, who provide as much as half of NRA revenue. At $1.3 billion, the total revenue for the gun industry annually is only slightly more than what a company like Apple makes in a given week in a good quarter. And last year the NRA spent less than $7 million dollars on non-Presidential elections — and lost far more of those contests than it won. Indeed a watchdog group called The Sunlight Foundation said the NRA has the worst return of investment on its political donations of any lobbying organization

The No. 1 reason why gun control legislation fails to pass is that, with the sporadic exceptions of a tragedy like Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook, nobody speaks for the victim. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was able to reduce drunk driving deaths in half over a 20-year span, from approximately 30,000 annual deaths nationwide to the current 15,000 level. Outraged parents made it their life mission to ensure a changed culture and to produce legislation on the matter of drunk driving. And they succeeded despite opposition even more powerful and deep-pocketed than the NRA

School shootings represent only a small fraction of gun deaths. More than 90 percent of the 31,000 annual gun fatalities trace to suicide, domestic violence or gangs.

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