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Health & Fitness

The View From Over Here: Taking it to the Gunmen

Reston residents protest against gun violence to NRA.

On a blustery Friday last week, more than 60 residents of Reston and Herndon assembled in front of the National Rifle Association headquarters offices on Waples Mill Road in Fairfax.  They gathered to protest in memory of the 20 children and their brave teachers murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.   The rally began at 9:30 a.m. - the same time as the Newtown massacre.

The Reston-Herndon Committee  Against Gun Violence gathered and marched on the frigid morning not only to commemorate  the deaths of the children and their teachers, but also to demand action by their government to stop the epidemic of death by gunfire in this country. 

The protesters, marching back and forth on the sidewalk fronting the huge NRA office building, carried signs with varied, poignant messages. Among the signs were:  “Protect our kids, No Guns in Schools”, “Civilians Don’t Need Assault Weapons”, and “5 percent of the world’s population with 55 percent of the guns in civilian hands”.  And, of course there were numerous signs referring to the high gun death rate in the U.S. and the recent gun massacres, the names we all know:  Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tuscon, Aurora, and Newtown. 

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The Committee supports the actions proposed by President Obama to reduce gun violence, and plans more actions to press for the necessary legislation and public policies to achieve that goal.  The Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution certainly allows for such minimal restrictions on the right to
bear arms.  Even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in writing the most expansive opinion ever on the subject and ignoring the Amendment’s “well regulated militia” language altogether, leaves room for modest limits such as the President proposes.

Nonetheless, the President is going to need the support of all of us who want long-overdue, common sense gun control measures enacted if he is to have a chance to succeed in reducing the killings.

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Anyone interested in working against gun violence should contact Committee leader Joanna Simon at joanna.simon@verizon.net

 

 

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