DETROIT, MI - The staff of Rising Voices would like to express sorrow and condolences for the victims of the mass shooting in Monterey Park, California this Lunar New Year. In a time of what should be a celebration with our families and loved ones, our communities have been violated. This loss cannot be comprehended.
While shock and grief are immediate, we also feel rage and exhaustion with regards to the repeated mass shootings that have plagued our nation for too long. The Michigan Asian American community shares this pain, having experienced firsthand this violence at Oxford High School and at other shootings across the country. These outrages, on top of the rising incidents of anti-Asian hate that arose during the pandemic and continue to target our families, have strained our communities beyond endurance.
This New Year we demand change. We demand that our Michigan elected officials and community leaders pass legislation that will protect our families and loved ones, beginning with proposed state gun control measures that call for universal background checks, gun storage requirements and “red flag” procedures that keep firearms out of reach for dangerous individuals. Rising Voices will continue to hold the officials our communities helped elect accountable to these measures.
At the federal level, we demand priority focus on gun violence as a public health emergency, with actions that include oversight by a cabinet-level director, increased regulation for gun manufacturers and dealers, full funding for evidence-based community intervention programming and research, and the restoration of funding for student safety programs, therapy and trauma-informed counseling.
We will not let a time of celebration for our Asian American communities become yet another statistic in the shameful history of gun violence in this country. We will not allow our families to live in fear. We demand safe communities and a nation where all people, not just Asian Americans, can walk in freedom and reassurance that their lives have meaning and matter. For the sake of our loved ones, the change and transformation that a New Year brings must start now
For more information about proposed gun control measures by the Michigan Legislature, go to:
Michigan Senate Bill No. 953 regulating firearm sales and storage - http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2019-2020/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2020-SIB-0953.pdf
Michigan Senate Bill No. 0856 to prevent dangerous individuals from obtaining firearms:
National policy recommendations:
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