Newsletter Volume 3 • Number 2
Last week, we marked National Gun Violence Awareness Day – a stark reminder of the public health crisis we face in our country and state.
Every day, 120 Americans are killed with guns, and guns are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. Research shows us that strong gun laws save lives.
Since the horrific Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, Connecticut legislators have worked hard, in a bipartisan manner, to pass vital gun violence prevention measures that were supported by police, mayors, and public health officials. The laws CT adopted earned our state an A rating from the Giffords Law Center and resulted in the Nation’s 6th lowest gun death rate.
But our laws are only as strong as the people we elect to pass them. The kids who survived that worst day graduated from high school this week, a chilling marker of the time that has passed on this unsettled life and death issue that requires our continued vigilance. We cannot afford to elect candidates who vote against our safety.
Ryan Fazio did just that last year when he voted against An Act Addressing Gun Violence. That common sense bill, which passed with support of Democrats and Republicans:
- Protects our police: Prohibits open carry of guns in public – making it easier for law enforcement to identify a public safety threat, and expands safe storage requirements to prevent gun thefts.
- Protects our community: Restricts bulk purchases of handguns, closes loopholes in the existing assault weapons ban and keeps domestic violence offenders from possessing a firearm. It also requires that ghost guns – untraceable, do-it-yourself assembled weapons – be registered, and that anyone under 21 is prohibited from purchasing a semiautomatic rifle.
- Protects our children: Requires all firearms be sold with a trigger lock.
CT’s Democratic officials are committed to reducing gun deaths. US Senator Chris Murphy championed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun safety bill passed in 30 years. All three of our Democratic state representatives, Rachel Khanna, Steve Meskers and Hector Arzeno, voted in favor of the Act Addressing Gun Violence.
Democrat Nick Simmons, who is running for State Senate in the 36th District, was Governor Lamont’s deputy chief of staff when the bill was signed into law. Simmons rebuked Fazio’s vote against the measure, “I was supremely disappointed in our current State Senator for voting against this bill to keep our children and community safe from shootings and violence.” This November we have an opportunity to elect officials who vote for our safety.
To learn more about efforts to keep us safe and to get involved, check out the work of CT Against Gun Violence.
Biden delivers wake up call at Normandy
As Donald Trump riled up supporters at a Las Vegas campaign rally last week, President Biden paid his respects at the Aisne-Marne World War I cemetery outside Paris, and joined WWII veterans to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day at the Normandy American Cemetery. Trump had declined a visit to the WWI cemetery in 2018, asking why he would visit the graves of “losers and suckers.”
In his bracing speech, Biden cited fallen soldiers by name, and described what they had done on D-Day, from operating radar to dragging wounded soldiers to safety. The president urged Americans to work to save democracy, so as to honor the sacrifices made by our fallen soldiers.
“[T]o bow down to dictators,” he said, “means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches,” Biden warned, a reference to Republican months-long efforts to stall an emergency aid bill for Ukraine, and to the growing Republican embrace of authoritarian rule. “We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point…since these beaches were stormed in 1944. …In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours?”
Democratic Action Calendar
June 15. Canvass.
Please join us in Greenwich this weekend to help Nick Simmons door knock to flip the 36th State Senate seat blue! We will be door knocking on Saturday, June 15th from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm and we will meet at the Dorothy Hamill Ice Skating Rink at 10am. Sign up here
June 15. Discover.
Our next book talk is with authors Louise Story and Ebony Reed who have just published Fifteen Cents on the Dollar, How Americans Made the Black White Wealth Gap. Refreshments provided, space is limited. Sign up here. 7:00 p.m., Sorokin Gallery, 96 Greenwich Ave.
June 25. Meet up.
Greenwich Democrats’ monthly meeting. A chance to make friends and learn what we’re up to. 7:30 p.m. Greenwich Town Hall Meeting Room.
June 29. Gather.
Join Democrats from every corner of the state for this annual dinner bash featuring House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Write “Greenwich Table” in the Additional Information field to be seated together. RSVP
| Volume 3, Number 2 • June 13, 2024 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |