Skip to comments.

Posted on 10/01/2001 12:47:18 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Julie Bernstein,   Monday, October 1, 2001     202/822-6070

STUDENT ACTIVISTS LAUNCH “GUN INDUSTRY WATCH” New Film, “Deadly Business,” Chronicles Industry Abuses

WASHINGTON, DC – More than 150 campus and community events across the country today launched a campaign to force the gun industry to take responsibility for its deadly products. A new student organization, “Gun Industry Watch,” will monitor gun industry and National Rifle Association (NRA) practices surrounding the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of guns and will take direct action aimed at gun makers and the gun lobby. Today’s campus rallies were part of the First Monday Campaign, an annual day of action organized by the Alliance for Justice with Physicians for Social Responsibility.

“Nearly thirty thousand Americans die every year from gun violence,” said Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice. “It’s time to demand the industry take responsibility for its deadly products. It makes sense that students who have been leading the call for greater corporate social responsibility, should lead the way in demanding accountability from America’s most unregulated and dangerous industry.”

To make its case against the gun industry, the First Monday Campaign also released a new documentary film, “Deadly Business,” that exposes industry abuses. The 30-minute film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Glen Pearcy reveals how the gun industry and gun lobby work together to ensure that guns remain the least regulated and most lethal product sold in America. The film draws powerful parallels between the misleading marketing tactics of the gun industry and the tobacco industry. “Deadly Business” was shown at today’s campus rallies and will be premiered at a Monday evening screening in Washington, DC.

“First Monday is activating a new generation of Americans willing to take action to make our future safer,” said Robert K. Musil, Ph.D, MPH, CEO and executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Through ‘Gun Industry Watch’ students are focusing their energies on the real culprit behind America’s epidemic of gun injury and death: the gun industry.”

n the coming months, student members of “Gun Industry Watch” will take the lead on organizing grassroots activities aimed at gun manufacturers and the gun lobby, including:

· Exposing deceptive advertising used by gun makers;
· Boycotting corporate partners and sponsors of the gun lobby;
· Demanding consumer product safety standards for firearms.
“In the same way that a dedicated group of activists exposed the tobacco industry and changed America’s smoking culture, it’s time to expose the gun industry and change America’s gun culture,” said Aron.

First Monday is an annual, campus-based campaign that focuses on social justice issues and takes place on the first Monday in October to coincide with the opening day of the U.S. Supreme Court. More than 140 national and state groups have co-sponsored First Monday 2001, including the Brady Campaign, the Million Mom March, the National Education Association, the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Children’s Defense Fund, and the United States Student Association. More information about First Monday 2001 is available at the website www.firstmonday2001.com, at the Alliance for Justice website at www.afj.org or at the Physicians for Social Responsibility website, www.psr.org.

If you no longer wish to receive press alerts, simply reply to this message with the words remove in the subject of your e-mail.

If the lefties choke at an M4, howzabout this?

Happiness is BELT-FED!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.