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January 8th shooting survivors demand plan of action to put end to gun violence

Posted: Jul 25, 2012 5:41 PM
Updated: Jul 25, 2012 6:39 PM


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TUCSON - Some survivors and family members from the January 8th shooting are calling for a plan of action against gun violence.

They're joining "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" for a national campaign that kicked off Wednesday.

A full page ad in USA TODAY asks President Barack Obama and his opponent Republican Mitt Romney to present their plans to end the violence.

It said: "Another mass shooting in America, another moment in silence, but will the moment ever end?

It goes on to say: "Our hearts ache for Aurora. We know the wounds they have suffered. We remember the kind words that our elected officials had for us, but we have seen their moment of silence stretch into 18 months of inaction.

We demand action.

Every day, 34 more Americans are murdered with a bullet; three Aurora massacres every single day."

The devastation of January 8th still echoes in their minds. "It's devastating. It's something that will stay with you forever that will make you shake and make your gut wrench for the rest of your life," said Nancy Bowman.

For Bowman, it started as a trip to the grocery store, but when she heard the gunfire, she rushed to render aid to the victims.

"When you see helpless innocent people slaughtered by somebody who gets a hold of an automatic weapon and decides to take aim and start shooting," said Bowman.

Bill Badger was among those wounded.

"You would like to see something good come out of such a tragic event as this," said Badger.

That's why gun control is so important to Bowman and Badger.

Experiencing first-hand how violent guns can be has made them passionate about the "demand a plan" campaign.


"There are people who should be prohibited from having guns and those laws are on the books and we should be enforcing those," said Bowman.

They believe everyone should go through a background check and anyone prohibited from buying a gun should go in the database.

They also strongly believe there should be a ban on assault rifles.

"Why should anyone need a 100 round clip?" asked Bowman. "The only reason to have a 100 round clip is to slaughter people."

And with the full page ad in USA TODAY, they hope lawmakers will spring into action.

"Do something to prevent this from happening time after time after time like this where these innocent people are hurt," said Badger.

There is a petition people can sign to join these survivors' efforts.

That petition can be found here: www.DemandAPlan.org

The letter in the ad is addressed to President Obama and Governor Romney.

No response from their camps yet.

We also reached out to the National Rifle Association.

This is their statement: "Every US citizen feels pain for the victims of Tucson and Aurora. Simply ‘demanding' a plan to stop madmen from committing heinous acts of barbarism will solve nothing. One look at the perpetrators of each of these incidents reveals that there may be something wrong with the mental health system in the US and maybe that is something that should be examined. Claiming that more gun control will do anything to stop these incidents is naive, we have simply to look at the recent mass shooting in Norway, where there is very strict gun control, to see that. "

Todd Rathner
NRA Board Member

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