[Mb-civic] Urgent: Assault Weapons Ban Expires Monday ~ Plea by MoveOn.org

[Barbara Siomos]

President Bush is letting the national ban on assault weapons expire. In
six days, these deadly, military-style weapons will start returning to
our streets, unless Bush acts. 

Click here to demand that the President and Congress renew the ban now.
Please also forward this email to your friends and ask them to speak up
-- we'll deliver our message to President Bush and Congress by Friday,
before the ban expires.

Click to Sign the Petition

Dear MoveOn member, 
On Monday, September 13th, at midnight, the national ban on
military-style assault weapons will expire, allowing these murderous
weapons back on our streets.

Congress is feeling the heat and is prepared to renew the ban, if the
president will only ask -- but President Bush is letting the ban expire,
on behalf of the gun lobby. We've got to take action.
Please sign on to our emergency petition to President Bush and Congress
to renew the assault weapons ban now:

http://www.moveon.org/savetheban/
 
Then please ask your friends and family to sign, by forwarding them this
email. We'll deliver all of the comments by Friday, September 10th,
before the ban expires, so we need as many people as possible to sign on
today.

In 2000, President Bush campaigned on a promise to renew the ban. Yet
today, after we've endured mass murders like Columbine and terrorists
have bought assault weapons on American soil, President Bush is letting
the ban expire.

Bush is jeopardizing our safety for the sake of an endorsement from the
National Rifle Association. As reported in the newspaper The Hill, "The
National Rifle Association's (NRA) endorsement of Bush is on hold until
after the ban expires."[1] 
Since 1994, the assault weapons ban has taken the deadliest military-
style weapons off our streets, dramatically cutting their use in crimes
by 66 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and reducing
the murder rates of police officers and the public.
 
This is not a partisan issue -- the assault weapons ban was supported by
Presidents Reagan, Ford, Carter, and Clinton, and by Republicans Tom
Ridge and Rudy Giuliani. The ban is supported by 74 percent of American
voters, by Republicans and Democrats on the committees that investigated
9/11, and by virtually every police officers' association including the
Major Cities Chiefs Association, International Brotherhood of Police
Officers , National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), National Black
Police Association, and Hispanic American Police Command Officers
Association.
Yet President Bush is letting the ban expire, as he refuses to call on
Congress to send him the ban renewal for his signature.
 
If he lets it expire, beginning Tuesday the 14th of September, an
18-year-old will once again be able to buy an AK-47 assault rifle in
most states.

Don't let Bush put deadly assault weapons back on our streets. Go to:

http://www.moveon.org/savetheban/
 
Please help make sure your friends have signed on too, before we deliver
this petition on Friday.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
--Wes Boyd 
  MoveOn.org

  Wednesday, September 8th, 2004
Footnote:
[1] The Hill, "Gun makers get ready for big demand," September 2, 2004
* See our website for the complete article, as well as further resources
and other background information on this issue.