And this is how it ends, not with a bang . . .

For all the heated rhetoric and seeming impossibility of making any headway in preventing, or even lessening, the toll that gun violence takes every year things do change. I have a Google alert set for 'gun violence'. I set it up just after 12/14/12. The results it returns are moving from incident reports to stories of prayer meetings, community actions, city commissions and street level action calling attention to how gun violence touches lives.

Things change not from the top down but from the bottom up, from the grass roots of local communities that have felt pain and loss. Community organizations, church groups, victims support groups; a thousand voices. Yes, there are big players like Moms Demand Action and Everytown but they are only a reflection of those touched by gun violence.

Weddings and funerals usually have 200 people attending because just about everybody knows 200 people. Thirty thousand people die from guns every year and nearly three times that are injured. Times 200 that's a lot of people touched by gunfire. And they're speaking out and they're being heard.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence just issued a report 'Gun Law Trendwatch: 2017 Mid-Year Review' and it reflects what I've said above.



""The new report, Gun Law Trendwatch: 2017 Mid-Year Review, contains a roundup and analysis of firearms bills that have been introduced in states across the country, including:

*Defeated Gun Lobby Bills. The gun lobby suffered numerous setbacks to its agenda this cycle. Legislators in 13 states rejected measures to allow guns on campus and legislators in 20 states defeated measures to allow guns in public without a permit. The gun lobby also failed to repeal background check laws in Washington, Nebraska, and Iowa.

*New Gun Safety Laws. Americans for Responsible Solutions and other groups in the gun violence prevention movement worked to advance a series of smart gun laws. In Hawaii and Washington, we saw legislation that would strengthen the background check system. In Utah and Washington, we saw bills that will help reduce the epidemic of firearm suicide. Five states, including Maryland, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah, enacted legislation that combats the deadly nexus between gun violence and domestic violence.

*New Gun Lobby Laws. This year’s legislative cycle saw very few victories for the gun lobby, and those primarily confined to states with already poor gun laws. Arkansas, New Hampshire, and North Dakota all passed laws to weaken concealed carry laws, while Texas and Tennessee passed legislation to weaken silencer regulations. The gun lobby’s efforts to dismantle the laws regulating silencers and concealed carry mirror its efforts at the federal level. Fortunately, this year advocates stopped many of the gun lobby’s dangerous bills from advancing.""
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The gun violence prevention movement has had remarkable success passing lifesaving smart gun laws while blocking dangerous gun lobby measures,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Despite these major victories for public safety, there is still so much more that must be done to protect Americans and make our communities safer. With a handful of state legislatures still in session, we look forward to working with lawmakers and advocates to achieve additional legislative victories and continue fighting for the policies we know will save lives and protect our communities from the scourge of gun violence.""

http://augustafreepress.com/report-highlights-national-trends-state-gun-safety-legislation/

report here: http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/17.06-TREND-Mid-year-Review-linked.pdf



The gun agenda in DC went nowhere. Yes there were bigger fish to fry but for once guns weren't that damn big.

The change isn't happening fast. But it's happening. It is, after all, a tide that's turning not a tidal wave. So this is how the strangle hold of the gun lobby on our country ends. Not with a bang and not with a whimper but with a firm resolve that doesn't give up.