The Governor has a decision on Senate Bill 789 allowing some domestic abuse suspects to get a concealed carry gun permit. He will decide this very soon. Among other voices, including some of ours, Gabby Giffords and Debbie Dingell have written the governor. These two women are each significant to PPGV. Gabby’s shooting in 2011 sparked us to organize PPGV, asking each of you to join and have a physician voice on this issue- a louder, clearer voice than that of most of organized medicine. And Debbie’s husband, Rep. John Dingell, protested to me that personalizing a gun and making the manufacturers more responsible would not be a good idea. He has deep NRA connections. Now, his wife makes her case for a veto of this bill. The links to their voices are here and here
Playing Defense. My friend, Joe, talks about blocking and tackling, his words for life as sport. To do a good job in life you have to do the basics, blocking and tackling. Nothing fancy, but the job doesn’t get done without a ground game. On gun violence to try not to lose more lives and make us safer we need to get our “ground game” together. In playing defense, as we are now that there are few allies in the Michigan legislature, we need to be able to counter the NRA offensive. That said, how we become better at the basics and at building a winning coalition remains our job- our life. Short range go Everytown for Gun Safety call tool to call the governor. And go to our website ppgv.org or respond to this email to be involved in longer term.