The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) was saddened to learn about today’s shooting tragedy at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with the family of the victim of the shooting.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was deeply disturbed by yesterday’s vote in the House of Representatives which gave final Congressional approval to a dangerous, non-germane amendment to the "Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009." The amendment, originally sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), would allow individuals to bring loaded semiautomatic assault rifles, handguns and shotguns into National Parks as long as the firearm is in compliance with state law. This would override a longstanding and sensible regulation enacted by the Reagan administration that requires visitors to keep guns stored and unloaded when traveling through the Parks.

Washington, DC - Following yesterday's assault weapon rampage shooting in Alabama leaving 11 dead including the shooter, America's leading national gun violence prevention organizations—Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Freedom States Alliance, Legal Community Against Violence, and Violence Policy Center—issued the following joint statement...

A bill that would have required background checks on all firearm sales at gun shows, S.B. 1257, was defeated in the Virginia Senate today by a vote of 19-21. This legislation was co-sponsored by Senator Henry Marsh (D-Richmond) and Senator Janet Howell (D-Reston) and had the backing of Governor Tim Kaine, the Virginia State Police, and an overwhelming majority of Virginia residents. In a 2008 poll by Christopher Newport University, 68% of Virginians listed “requiring gun purchasers at gun shows to undergo the same background check required for guns purchased at gun shops” as their highest priority for the Virginia General Assembly.

Today, in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the United States Supreme Court departed from over 100 years of earlier judicial decisions and held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for self-defense purposes unconnected with service in a militia. Despite the sweeping tone of the holding, the majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia is relatively narrow in scope, and leaves more questions open than it answers.