PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

April 16, 2007

ANOTHER GUN MASSACRE IN AMERICA

State's Leading Gun Violence Prevention Organization Says:
"It's About the Guns"

Toledo, Ohio: The deadliest mass shooting in the history of the US occurred today at Virginia Tech. So far reports are that 31 have been killed, including the shooter, and at least 29 injured. Our hearts go out to the families, the students and the school.

Nancy Wellman, Board President of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said:"We are not surprised at another American gun massacre. These, while unbearably sad, are hardly unexpected in this country. Our weak gun laws make it a certainty that the United States will suffer recurrences of such preventable tragedies. There is a crying need for Americans to understand - It's about the guns!"

Toby Hoover, Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence said:"Listening to reports, you'd think the gun was the least of the problem this morning. The focus is on security, behavior and etc, anything but the hard, cold fact that such bloodshed was made possible by only one thing - a gun."

Nancy Wellman continued: "The Congress called for a Moment of Silence. Indeed a moment of silence is appropriate for such a devastating tragedy with such pain for families and students. But we also want a moment of noise. We want Congress to look hard at the gun issue and the fact that our country has such a high homicide rate compared to other developed countries. We want them to act on sensible laws and stop being afraid of the gun lobby."

Unfortunately, since the shootings in Columbine it has gotten easier to get deadly firearms not harder. When other countries suffer such tragedies, they act. In this country we just seem to speculate and take no action. Until we look hard at our countries policies on guns, America will continue to have such tragedies.

Toby Hoover concluded,"Until we are willing to talk about the guns - the common denominator in all such tragedies, all the security and all the swat team techniques will not prevent such terrible shootings. "

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