Jay Plant, of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which hosted the nationwide events, said universal background checks would save women’s lives. Citing coalition statistics, he said that 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners in states that require a background check for every handgun sale.
By Lori Kurtzman – The Columbus Dispatch
Among Kelly Cameron’s childhood memories is the image of her stepfather pressing a gun to the heads of her toddler sisters.
That’s how he tried to keep her mother from leaving him. He threatened to kill two girls, ages 2 and 3.
He was a “really great guy until he wasn’t,” Cameron said today, recalling her stepfather’s threats to a room of advocates who are trying to make it harder for people like him to buy a gun.
With the U.S. Senate scheduled to begin debate on gun legislation next week, gun-control supporters across the country met today to discuss the link between guns and domestic violence, and to push for universal background checks for gun buyers.
Cameron was one of about 20 people who gathered around a table at a Downtown office. She’s a local chapter leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group that formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
“We are making it too easy for the criminal,” Cameron said. “Some manage to wreak havoc on society if they want to, but we have to make it harder for them.”