Chart Notes Winter-Spring 2022
Docs and Friends,
I hope this finds you well and that the COVID variants have been manageable in your life.
As they say in the media-BREAKING NEWS! We have had not one but two important news stories of consequence to PPGV and our goal of gun safety.
First is the new campaign End Gun Violence Michigan. In January 103 leaders from across Michigan attended a call and pledged to change our gun culture. The press release came on Valentine’s Day that a ballot initiative would be prepared for 2024. Faith leaders, gun violence prevention groups (PPGV), survivors, politicians and others tired of years of legislative inaction said enough. “If the legislature won’t protect us, we may have to pass common sense gun safety laws ourselves.” This is the beginning. For more information go to http://www.migunsafety.org
Then there was a victory in the settlement of the case against Remington by the Sandy Hook victims and their families. This payment of 73 million dollars marks the first time that a manufacturer has had to pay for shooting negligence. The result was directly because the plaintiffs were claiming that Remington marketed their guns, specifically in this instance Bushmaster (an AK47) originally a weapon of war to civilians. It is known that the weapons have become weapons of choice in mass shootings. Remington tried to argue that they had nothing to do with Adam Lanza, the killer, but it became known that he watched hours of video games with these weapons and Duct-taped magazines together as depicted in a version of the game. It was a drawn-out battle, but justice finally came.
Today, Feb 21, in the New York Times Elizabeth Williamson details this story and weaves in another of Lenny Pozner who also lost a child at Sandy Hook. Pozner has taken on disinformation and conspiracy spreaders as his post-shooting vocation with his organization HONR. His is also a brave story. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/us/politics/sandy-hook-legal-victories.html?campaign_id=
We will see a better Michigan.
Best,
Jerry