* “We are law-abiding citizens”
* National Gun Prevention Sabbath planned for Sunday
* Five hurt in gun show accidents in three states
(Adds accidents at gun shows in three states)
By Nick Carey
Jan 19 (Reuters) – Pro-gun activists held “high noon”
rallies across the United States on Saturday to defend the right
to own firearms that they say is being threatened by President
Barack Obama’s gun-control proposals.
The U.S. debate over gun control erupted in mid-December
after a man armed with an assault rifle killed 20 first-graders
and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut –
the deadliest of a string of U.S. shooting sprees last year.
“We are law-abiding citizens, business owners, military, and
we are not going to be responsible for other people’s criminal
actions,” former Marine Damon Locke said to applause at a
Florida rally he had helped organize.
Some in the crowd of about 1,000 in Brooksville, about an
hour north of Tampa, hoisted signs that said: “Stop the Gun
Grabbers” and “Gun control isn’t about guns, it’s about
control.”
Obama and gun-control advocates have begun a push to
reinstitute a U.S. assault weapons ban following the Connecticut
massacre. A number of other states have taken up gun
legislation, and New York, with among the strictest gun control
laws in the country, broadened its assault weapons ban on
Tuesday.
Obama has also called for a ban on high-capacity magazines
and more stringent background checks for gun purchasers.
On the day the pro-gun rights rallies were being held across
the country, five people were wounded in accidents at three gun
shows.
Three people were hurt when a 12-gauge shotgun discharged as
its owner opened its case at the entrance to a show in North
Carolina. Two others were wounded when guns went off
accidentally at gun shows in Ohio and Indiana. None of the day’s
injuries was life-threatening.
DEFIANT MOOD
In Connecticut, a rally for gun rights drew about 1,000
people at the state Capitol, where lawmakers have reacted to the
Newtown shooting with proposals to tighten gun-control rules,
including limiting access to assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines.
That did not sit well with gun owner Jessie Buchanan, who
attended the rally in Hartford.
“They could take away the 10-round magazine today and
tomorrow it would be the five-round and the next day it would be
the whole thing,” Buchanan said.
In Denver, the mood was defiant as about 500 people,
including families with children, gathered in unseasonably warm
weather outside the state Capitol.
“I have earned the right to have my guns,” said Don Dobyns,
an Air Force veteran and former police officer from Colorado
Springs, who was among the rally organizers.
Sporting a shirt that read, “Girls with guns,” 31-year-old
Jennifer Burk said, “My parents didn’t raise a victim and the
government shouldn’t try and make me one.”
Gun-control advocates say U.S. civilians have no justifiable
need for assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, and they
say more background checks will help keep guns out of the hands
of criminals.
The reaction has been fierce from gun supporters such as the
National Rifle Association, who point to a right to bear arms
that is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution and which they do not want to see watered down.
On Sunday, gun-control advocates plan to hold a National Gun
Prevention Sabbath, where they say 150 houses of worship will
call on the faithful to advocate for an “actionable plan to
prevent gun violence.”
People who have lost loved ones to gun violence will display
their photographs, organizers said.
(Reporting by Nick Carey in Chicago, Ebond Udoma in Hartford,
Keith Coffman in Denver, Edith Honan in New York and Alex
Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Peter Cooney)
