Washington, D.C. — Today, Anne Johnson, Director of Campus Progress Action, the youth division of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a national research institute based in Washington, D.C.; Emily Tisch Sussman, Democratic strategist and former Executive Director of Young Democrats; State Senator Vincent D. Fort; and Dr. Laurie Wood, a former narcotics agent and professor at Vanderbilt University, will participate in a round table to release a new report detailing Georgia’s performance on 10 measures of gun violence, the link between weak state gun laws and high levels of gun violence in Georgia, and why universal background checks must be part of any solution to prevent gun violence. Ronnie Mosley, co-founder of iCAN: The Intercollegiate Action Network and a student at Morehouse College; Anita Foster, President of the Spelman College Student Government Association; and Kathryn Grant, State Director for the Georgia chapter of Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, will also participate.
At the round table, Johnson will discuss findings from a new Center for American Progress 50-state analysis that identifies the prevalence of gun-related violence in Georgia communities and examines how the state measures up according to 10 key measures of gun violence. The report also ranks each of the 50 states and explores the link between high levels of gun violence and weak state gun laws.
Key findings from the analysis include:
- Georgia experienced a gun murder every 20 hours in the state in 2010.
- Georgia had the fifth-highest rate of women murdered by guns in the 10-year period from 2001 through 2010.
WHO:
- Anne Johnson, Director, Campus Progress Action at the Center for American Progress Action Fund
- Emily Tisch Sussman, Democratic Strategist and Former Executive Director, Young Democrats
- Senator Vincent D. Fort, State Senator Representing Georgia’s 39th District
- Dr. Laurie Wood, Former Narcotics Agent and Professor at Vanderbilt University
- Ronnie Mosley, Co-Founder, iCAN and Student at Morehouse College
- Anita Foster, President, Spelman College Student Government Association
- Kathryn Grant, State Director, Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus–Georgia
WHEN:
Friday, April 5, 2013
3:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Morehouse College
830 Westview Drive, SW
Kilgore Hall – 2nd Floor Seminar Room
Atlanta, GA 30314
RSVP:
Please confirm your attendance by contacting Madeline Meth at 202.741.6277 or [email protected]
From April 3-5 principals from the Center for American Progress Action Fund are participating in events in Tucson, South Bend, Baton Rouge, Reno, Philadelphia, and Atlanta to discuss the report’s findings while standing alongside local leaders, victims of gun violence, law enforcement officials, faith leaders, and students who will talk about why preventing future gun violence is important to their communities.
Read the full report from the Center for American Progress: “America Under the Gun: A 50-State Analysis of Gun Violence and Its Link to Weak State Gun Laws” by Arkadi Gerney, Chelsea Parsons, and Charles Posner
###