 | |
| Founded | January 17, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location |
|
Area served | United States |
Members | 50 |
| Affiliations | Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence |
Employees | 1 |
| Website | faiths-united |
Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence (Faiths United) is a United States faith-based, interdenominational gun control advocacy organization.
Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence was formed on January 17, 2011, after the 2011 Tucson shooting that killed six and injured U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. The coalition's 24 founding members wrote a letter to Congress endorsing a bill to ban large-capacity ammunition magazines. [1] The bill, H.R. 308, did not pass.
In 2012, Faiths United worked with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and other gun control groups to prevent passage of the National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act. [2]
In January 2013, Faiths United and other faith leaders wrote another letter to Congress after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. [3] In March 2013, it collaborated with the National Cathedral, PICO National Network, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns to urge new gun laws requiring background checks for all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and making gun trafficking a federal crime. [4] [5]
As of May 2013, Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence listed 50 supporters, including Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Sikh groups. [6] It advocates that: every person who buys a gun should pass a criminal background check; high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines should not be available to civilians; and gun trafficking should be a federal crime. [7] Its national coordinator, Vincent DeMarco, has said that he believes the same grass-roots, faith-based strategy that beat the tobacco lobby can also defeat the gun lobby. [8]
Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to keep and bear arms, and have more liberal gun laws than neighboring jurisdictions. Countries that regulate access to firearms will typically restrict access to certain categories of firearms and then restrict the categories of persons who may be granted a license for access to such firearms. There may be separate licenses for hunting, sport shooting, self-defense, collecting, and concealed carry, with different sets of requirements, permissions, and responsibilities.
The term assault weapon is used in the United States to define various types of firearms. The definition varies among regulating jurisdictions, but usually includes semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magazine, a pistol grip, and sometimes other features, such as a vertical forward grip, flash suppressor, or barrel shroud. Certain firearms are specified by name in some laws that restrict assault weapons. When the now-defunct Federal Assault Weapons Ban was passed in 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice said, "In general, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use." The commonly used definitions of assault weapons are under frequent debate, and have changed over time.
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, often referred to as the Brady Act or the Brady Bill, is an Act of the United States Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States, and imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was implemented in 1998. The act was appended to the end of Section 922 of title 18, United States Code. The intention of the act was to prevent persons with previous serious convictions from purchasing firearms.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 is a U.S. federal law that regulates the firearms industry and firearms ownership. Due to constitutional limitations, the Act is primarily based on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except by manufacturers, dealers and importers licensed under a scheme set up under the Act.
Gun politics is an area of American politics defined by two primary opposing ideologies about civilian gun ownership. People who advocate for gun control support strengthening regulations related to gun ownership; people who advocate for gun rights oppose new regulations or support loosening restrictions related to gun ownership. These groups often disagree on the interpretation of laws and court cases related to firearms as well as about the effects of firearms regulation on crime and public safety. It is estimated that U.S. civilians own 393 million firearms, and that 35% to 42% of the households in the country have at least one gun. The U.S. has by far the highest estimated number of guns per capita in the world, at 120.5 guns for every 100 people.
Brady: United Against Gun Violence is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and against gun violence. It is named after James "Jim" Brady, who was permanently disabled and later died in 2014 as a result of the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt of 1981, and his wife Sarah Brady, who was a chairwoman of the organization from 1989 until her death in 2015.
Gun laws in the United States regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition. State laws vary considerably, and are independent of existing federal firearms laws, although they are sometimes broader or more limited in scope than the federal laws.
Josh Sugarmann is an American activist for gun control in the United States. He is the executive director and founder in 1988 of the Violence Policy Center (VPC), a non-profit advocacy and educational organization, and the author of two books on gun control. He has written a blog on these issues for the Huffington Post and publishes opinion pieces in the media.
Gun show loophole is a political term in the United States referring to the sale of firearms by private sellers, including those done at gun shows, that do not require the seller to conduct a federal background check of the buyer. This is also called the private sale exemption. Under federal law, any person may sell a firearm to a federally unlicensed resident of the state where they reside, as long as they do not know or have reasonable cause to believe that the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms.
In the United States, access to guns is controlled by law under a number of federal statutes. These laws regulate the manufacture, trade, possession, transfer, record keeping, transport, and destruction of firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessories. They are enforced by state agencies and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In addition to federal gun laws, all state governments and some local governments have their own laws that regulate firearms.
Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forces.
The 2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage was a shortage of civilian small arms ammunition in the United States that started in late 2008, and continued through most or all of 2010, with an additional shortage beginning in December 2012 and continuing throughout 2013.
The December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting—in which the perpetrator shot and killed his mother at home, 20 school children, 6 teachers, and then himself—received international attention. Governments and world leaders offered their condolences, while tributes and vigils by people were made in honor of the victims. U.S. President Barack Obama gave a televised address on the day of the shootings, saying, "We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." Obama paused twice during the address to compose himself and wipe away tears, and expressed "enormous sympathy for families that are affected". He also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House and other U.S. federal government facilities worldwide in respect for the victims. Three days after the massacre, 151,000 Americans had signed up at the Obama administration's We the People petitioning website in support of a renewed national debate on gun control. Obama attended and spoke at an interfaith vigil on December 16 in Newtown, Connecticut.
The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, commonly known as the NY SAFE Act, is a gun regulation law in the state of New York. The law was passed by the New York State Legislature and was signed into law by Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo in January 2013. The legislation was written in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and the Webster, New York, shooting. Cuomo described the law as the toughest gun control law in the United States.
The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act or Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as large capacity.
Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS) was a United States non-profit organization and super PAC that supports gun control. The group's stated goal is "to encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership." It typically supports Democratic politicians in elections. In 2016, the organization merged with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to become Giffords.
Assault weapons legislation in the United States refers to bills and laws that define and restrict or make illegal the manufacture, transfer, and possession of assault weapons. How these firearms are defined and regulated varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but typically they are semi-automatic rifles with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip.
A high-capacity magazine ban is a law which bans or otherwise restricts standard-capacity magazines—detachable firearm magazines that can hold more than a certain number of rounds of ammunition. For example, in the United States, the now-expired Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 included limits regarding magazines that could hold more than ten rounds. As of 2022, only ten U.S. states, and a number of local governments, continue to ban or regulate magazines that they have legally defined as "high-capacity". The majority of states do not ban or regulate any magazines on the basis of capacity. States that do have large capacity magazine bans or restrictions typically do not apply to firearms with fixed magazines whose capacity would otherwise exceed the large capacity threshold.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, multiple gun laws were proposed in the United States at the federal and state levels. The shooting renewed debate about gun control. The debates focused on requiring background checks on all firearm sales, and on passing new and expanded assault weapon and high-capacity magazine bans.
The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 was a bill introduced in the 113th United States Congress as S. 150 by Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, on January 24, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It was defeated in the Senate on April 17, 2013 by a vote of 40 to 60.