Los Angeles elected officials, faith leaders and cultural leaders will gather at First AME Church of Los Angeles Monday for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims killed last week in the racist and hate- motivated mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Laguna Woods.
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Strategic AdvancementStarry Virginia Lam Abrams is a seasoned communications and public affairs executive with .
not receiving a lot of attention but could have profound impact is an expansion of the state s stand your ground law. according to one interest campaigning against this legislation, mayors against illegal guns coalition, after georgia passed the current stand your ground law, the number of justify ibl homicides increased by 83%. the presence of more guns could ultimately drive violent crime down. the new expansion would make defense of yourself or others an absolute defense to any criminal gun charge, even if that gun was obtained illegally. the bill could pass next week when the 24 session will end. we re joined by collin goddard. colin himself was shot four times and critically wounded during the virginia tech massacre and uses that xperngs as an advocate to try to prevent gun violence. thanks for joining us. thanks for having me.
at the local level would change the course of the gun control debate. he has been proven wrong and this is a big deal to him. not just this, but the mayors against illegal guns coalition that mayor michael bloomberg has put together is falling apart. mayors are dropping out of it like flies because it s got no credibility. it s not working. voters don t want the carpetbagger billionaire coming into their state to tell them what they can and cannot do with their guns. let me just respond to that. the nra has been around since moses, okay? they kind of know how to do this stuff. they can cherry pick, they can find a few places they can be successful. they do have a better strategy because they are building bottom up. i think right now bloomberg s making a mistake by coming in top down, but these are new organizations and those organizations are actually growing faster than the nra. the anti-gun lobby outspent the pro recall lobby in colorado in these tiny little cherry picked dis
vice president in particular has been very forceful in his support of stronger gun laws. the fact of the matter is 90% of americans believe that we should make it harder for people with violent backgrounds, people who mean to do us harm to get their hands on guns with expanded background checks. americans want to see congress work. they want to see compromise, they want to see them work towards a safer country. and i think we can get there. you mentioned the 90% of folks who have said in poll after poll they would like to see stronger background checks in this country. have those people lobbied hard enough? have they been effective lobbyers? i think the problem is when you ask people about gun control and expanded background checks, a lot of people think that the things that we are fighting for are already in law. we have seen the numbers. we have seen the polls. people think the common sense laws that we are fighting for are already in effect. you re part of the mayors