Progressive group calls for lawmakers to boycott NRA event

Remember that NRA event for legislators I told you about? Well, ProgressNow Nevada wants the Gang of 63 to boycott the event and sent a letter Monday to lawmakers asking them not to go.

The event is this Saturday, and I wonder what is more dangerous: Going or not going. The letter is below.

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FROM: Brian Fadie, Executive Director, ProgressNow Nevada

TO: Nevada Assembly and Senate Representatives
January 14, 2013
Honorable Representatives:
I write to you on the one-month anniversary of the Newtown, CT massacre asking 
that you do not attend the National Rifle Association lobbyist event on January 19, 2013 in 
Las Vegas. 
The NRA seems to hold a special status of power in the minds of the media and 
some decision makers. It should be noted that of the $16,554,803 the NRA Political Victory 
Fund spent on the 2012 election only 0.81% of these expenditures benefited a winning 
candidate. Also, a comprehensive study of all 1038 NRA endorsements in the 2004-2010 
election cycles found the NRA’s endorsement swung the result in just four races.
Americans want elected officials who have the courage and independence to stand 
up to the gun lobby. That kind of leadership is what we need to fix our broken gun laws and 
reduce the daily toll of gun violence in our country.
Bad guys can keep getting guns when the NRA lobbyists have rewritten our laws 
with so many loopholes. The gun lobby weakens our gun laws, flooding the illegal market 
with firearms and mass ammo clips -- then complains that too many dangerous people have 
guns.
Our leaders should act now to make it harder for dangerous people to buy guns and 
easier for police to stop them. A common sense public safety agenda includes legislation that 
will get military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines off our streets and require 
every gun buyer to pass a criminal background check.
The Newtown shooter was armed with enough ammo to kill every student at the 
school. He used an AR-15 military-style assault rifle to kill the children -- a weapon that 
could be covered by a strong new assault weapons ban.
In Nevada the shooter at the restaurant in Carson City in 2011 used an automatic 
assault rifle to empty three magazines in 85 seconds, killing four people, including three 
Nevada National Guard soldiers, and wounding seven other people.
Attending this gun lobbyist event would be a signal to all Nevadans of a willingness 
to continue to bow to the mythical power of the NRA, when what Nevada needs more than 
ever is the leadership to stand up to these lobbyists that have worked to make guns more 
available to shooters in the first place.
Sincerely,
Brian Fadie
Executive Director
 

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