Blair’s Bill wants social security number to register handgun

by La Risa Lynch
A mangled bullet still lodged in one of Garrett Evans’ leg serves as a reminder of the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting that left 33 people dead, including the gunman and scores injured.

Evans says the Virginia Tech shooting  is an example for the need for tougher gun control laws. Evans was shot in both legs by Seung-Hui Cho as he rampaged through campus with two guns. Chow used a 22 handgun and a 9-millimeter gun that shot hallowed point bullets, which also left 25 wounded.

“People are getting bolder and bolder, so instead of handguns, people are going to come in with military-grade weapons and take out everybody,” Evans said.

Evans marched with Father Michael Pfleger and other community leaders outside Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 South Dearborn St., on Thursday, March 18, to demand the federal government reinstate the assault weapons ban and pass stricter gun registration laws.

The marchers want Congress to pass Blair’s Bill, which seeks to close loopholes that make it easy for people to purchase guns without background checks. The bill requires gun manufacturer to create a gun identification number (GIN) similar to a vehicle identification number that would allow federal and state law agencies to trace guns used in crimes.

The Virginia Tech shooting proves that gun violence is not a poor Black urban problem, says Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78^th Pl.

In March 2009, eight people were killed in a Carthage, North Carolina nursing home. A gunman left four dead in a suburban Pittsburg fitness center in August 2009. Another campus shooting this February left three professors dead in Huntsville, AL., and a Darien, IL. home invasion left a mother, father and a son dead.

“This is an American epidemic,” Pfleger said, adding that the U.S. had 31,000 gun deaths last year. “That is greater than Iraq and Afghanistan deaths together.”

But youth are most affected by gun violence. Last school year, 135 school students were shot and nearly 20 murdered. On average, ten young people under 19 die in the U.S. everyday from gun violence, and teens are more likely to die from gun violence than all other deaths from disease combined, Pfleger contends.

Ending gun violence, he said, must become a national issue similar to health care reform, which President Obama signed into law last week Tuesday.

“We want the federal government to understand, we hold them accountable for are children being shot down in America’s streets….,” Pfleger said.

Ron Holt, whose son Blair’s Bill was named after, said the bill has been stuck in committee since it was introduced by Congressman Bobby Rush in 2007. Blair, 16, was killed riding on a CTA bus in 2007.

Holt noted key components of bill have been attacked by gun lobbyists. The bill requires fingerprinting, a social security number and a valid driver’s license in order to register a firearm. Holt, a Chicago police officer, noted that if these provisions had been in place, the killers of Starkeisha Reed, 14, Nova Henry and her infant daughter, Ava, would have been unable to buy a gun.

Holt added that a social security number to register a handgun should be a requirement, just like it is for everything, so “why not for a dangerous weapon designed to kill.”

He applauded Rush for taking on this issue, but he contends Rush lacks support from his Congressional Black Caucus peers on gun control issues.

“We are only assuming ¾ and assuming being the operative word ¾ that the NRA and other gun lobbyists have funded their campaigns to a degree,” Holt said, adding that is “morally correct” for Black legislators to support Blair‘s Bill.

Joining the march were 50 students from Howard University. The students spent a week in Chicago collecting signatures for Blair’s Bill as part of an alternative spring break program. The program encourages students to do volunteer services in various cities.

To dramatize the effects of gun violence, Howard students held signs with names of slain CPS students. With helium filled balloons tied around their wrists, a person dressed in black popped each balloon symbolizing a gun shot. Once the balloon was popped, the student fell to ground as the slain students’ names were read aloud.

Howard sophomore Janell Heggins could relate to that scenario. As a teen, she saw someone place a gun to her father’s head. Her sister a few years ago lost a 12-year-old friend who was shot in the head. Since youth are often the victims and the perpetrators of gun violence, they must play a role in ending gun violence, Heggins explained.

“We are taking a stand. Howard is taking a stand. The community in Chicago needs to take more of a stand … and the entire nation should take a stand,” Heggins, 20, said.